Category Archives: Mars Colonization

Scientific assessments on the microbial habitability of Mars

The possibilities of life on Mars is a subject of interest in astrobiology due to the planet's proximity and similarities to Earth. To date, no proof of past or present life has been found on Mars. Cumulative evidence suggests that during the ancient Noachian time period, the surface environment of Mars had liquid water and may have been habitable for microorganisms, but habitable conditions do not necessarily indicate life.[1][2]

Scientific searches for evidence of life began in the 19th century and continue today via telescopic investigations and deployed probes. While early work focused on phenomenology and bordered on fantasy, the modern scientific inquiry has emphasized the search for water, chemical biosignatures in the soil and rocks at the planet's surface, and biomarker gases in the atmosphere.[3]

Mars is of particular interest for the study of the origins of life because of its similarity to the early Earth. This is especially true since Mars has a cold climate and lacks plate tectonics or continental drift, so it has remained almost unchanged since the end of the Hesperian period. At least two-thirds of Mars's surface is more than 3.5billion years old, and Mars may thus hold the best record of the prebiotic conditions leading to life, even if life does not or has never existed there,[4][5] which might have started developing as early as 4.48billion years ago.[6]

Following the confirmation of the past existence of surface liquid water, the Curiosity, Perseverance and Opportunity rovers started searching for evidence of past life, including a past biosphere based on autotrophic, chemotrophic, or chemolithoautotrophic microorganisms, as well as ancient water, including fluvio-lacustrine environments (plains related to ancient rivers or lakes) that may have been habitable.[7][8][9][10] The search for evidence of habitability, taphonomy (related to fossils), and organic compounds on Mars is now a primary NASA and ESA objective.

The findings of organic compounds inside sedimentary rocks and of boron on Mars are of interest as they are precursors for prebiotic chemistry. Such findings, along with previous discoveries that liquid water was clearly present on ancient Mars, further supports the possible early habitability of Gale Crater on Mars.[11][12] Currently, the surface of Mars is bathed with ionizing radiation, and Martian soil is rich in perchlorates toxic to microorganisms.[13][14] Therefore, the consensus is that if life existsor existedon Mars, it could be found or is best preserved in the subsurface, away from present-day harsh surface processes.

In June 2018, NASA announced the detection of seasonal variation of methane levels on Mars. Methane could be produced by microorganisms or by geological means.[15] The European ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter started mapping the atmospheric methane in April 2018, and the 2022 ExoMars rover Rosalind Franklin was planned to drill and analyze subsurface samples before the programme's indefinite suspension, while the NASA Mars 2020 rover Perseverance, having landed successfully, will cache dozens of drill samples for their potential transport to Earth laboratories in the late 2020s or 2030s. As of February 8, 2021, an updated status of studies considering the possible detection of lifeforms on Venus (via phosphine) and Mars (via methane) was reported.[16]

Mars's polar ice caps were discovered in the mid-17th century.[citation needed] In the late 18th century, William Herschel proved they grow and shrink alternately, in the summer and winter of each hemisphere. By the mid-19th century, astronomers knew that Mars had certain other similarities to Earth, for example that the length of a day on Mars was almost the same as a day on Earth. They also knew that its axial tilt was similar to Earth's, which meant it experienced seasons just as Earth doesbut of nearly double the length owing to its much longer year. These observations led to increasing speculation that the darker albedo features were water and the brighter ones were land, whence followed speculation on whether Mars may be inhabited by some form of life.[17]

In 1854, William Whewell, a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, theorized that Mars had seas, land and possibly life forms.[18] Speculation about life on Mars exploded in the late 19th century, following telescopic observation by some observers of apparent Martian canalswhich were later found to be optical illusions. Despite this, in 1895, American astronomer Percival Lowell published his book Mars, followed by Mars and its Canals in 1906,[19] proposing that the canals were the work of a long-gone civilization.[20] This idea led British writer H. G. Wells to write The War of the Worlds in 1897, telling of an invasion by aliens from Mars who were fleeing the planet's desiccation.[21]

Spectroscopic analysis of Mars's atmosphere began in earnest in 1894, when U.S. astronomer William Wallace Campbell showed that neither water nor oxygen were present in the Martian atmosphere.[22] The influential observer Eugne Antoniadi used the 83-cm (32.6inch) aperture telescope at Meudon Observatory at the 1909 opposition of Mars and saw no canals, the outstanding photos of Mars taken at the new Baillaud dome at the Pic du Midi observatory also brought formal discredit to the Martian canals theory in 1909,[23] and the notion of canals began to fall out of favor.[22]

Chemical, physical, geological, and geographic attributes shape the environments on Mars. Isolated measurements of these factors may be insufficient to deem an environment habitable, but the sum of measurements can help predict locations with greater or lesser habitability potential.[24] The two current ecological approaches for predicting the potential habitability of the Martian surface use 19 or 20 environmental factors, with an emphasis on water availability, temperature, the presence of nutrients, an energy source, and protection from solar ultraviolet and galactic cosmic radiation.[25][26]

Scientists do not know the minimum number of parameters for determination of habitability potential, but they are certain it is greater than one or two of the factors in the table below.[24] Similarly, for each group of parameters, the habitability threshold for each is to be determined.[24] Laboratory simulations show that whenever multiple lethal factors are combined, the survival rates plummet quickly.[27] There are no full-Mars simulations published yet that include all of the biocidal factors combined.[27] Furthermore, the possibility of Martian life having a far different biochemistry and habitability requirements than the terrestrial biosphere is an open question.

Recent models have shown that, even with a dense CO2 atmosphere, early Mars was colder than Earth has ever been.[28][29][30][31] Transiently warm conditions related to impacts or volcanism could have produced conditions favoring the formation of the late Noachian valley networks, even though the mid-late Noachian global conditions were probably icy. Local warming of the environment by volcanism and impacts would have been sporadic, but there should have been many events of water flowing at the surface of Mars.[31] Both the mineralogical and the morphological evidence indicates a degradation of habitability from the mid Hesperian onward. The exact causes are not well understood but may be related to a combination of processes including loss of early atmosphere, or impact erosion, or both.[31]

The loss of the Martian magnetic field strongly affected surface environments through atmospheric loss and increased radiation; this change significantly degraded surface habitability.[33] When there was a magnetic field, the atmosphere would have been protected from erosion by the solar wind, which would ensure the maintenance of a dense atmosphere, necessary for liquid water to exist on the surface of Mars.[34] The loss of the atmosphere was accompanied by decreasing temperatures. Part of the liquid water inventory sublimed and was transported to the poles, while the rest becametrapped in permafrost, a subsurface ice layer.[31]

Observations on Earth and numerical modeling have shown that a crater-forming impact can result in the creation of a long-lasting hydrothermal system when ice is present in the crust. For example, a 130km large crater could sustain an active hydrothermal system for up to 2million years, that is, long enough for microscopic life to emerge,[31] but unlikely to have progressed any further down the evolutionary path.[35]

Soil and rock samples studied in 2013 by NASA's Curiosity rover's onboard instruments brought about additional information on several habitability factors.[36] The rover team identified some of the key chemical ingredients for life in this soil, including sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and possibly carbon, as well as clay minerals, suggesting a long-ago aqueous environmentperhaps a lake or an ancient streambedthat had neutral acidity and low salinity.[36] On December 9, 2013, NASA reported that, based on evidence from Curiosity studying Aeolis Palus, Gale Crater contained an ancient freshwater lake which could have been a hospitable environment for microbial life.[37][38] The confirmation that liquid water once flowed on Mars, the existence of nutrients, and the previous discovery of a past magnetic field that protected the planet from cosmic and solar radiation,[39][40] together strongly suggest that Mars could have had the environmental factors to support life.[41][42] The assessment of past habitability is not in itself evidence that Martian life has ever actually existed. If it did, it was probably microbial, existing communally in fluids or on sediments, either free-living or as biofilms, respectively.[33] The exploration of terrestrial analogues provide clues as to how and where best look for signs of life on Mars.[43]

Impactite, shown to preserve signs of life on Earth, was discovered on Mars and could contain signs of ancient life, if life ever existed on the planet.[44]

On June 7, 2018, NASA announced that the Curiosity rover had discovered organic molecules in sedimentary rocks dating to three billion years old.[45][46] The detection of organic molecules in rocks indicate that some of the building blocks for life were present.[47][48]

Conceivably, if life exists (or existed) on Mars, evidence of life could be found, or is best preserved, in the subsurface, away from present-day harsh surface conditions.[49] Present-day life on Mars, or its biosignatures, could occur kilometers below the surface, or in subsurface geothermal hot spots, or it could occur a few meters below the surface. The permafrost layer on Mars is only a couple of centimeters below the surface, and salty brines can be liquid a few centimeters below that but not far down. Water is close to its boiling point even at the deepest points in the Hellas basin, and so cannot remain liquid for long on the surface of Mars in its present state, except after a sudden release of underground water.[50][51][52]

So far, NASA has pursued a "follow the water" strategy on Mars and has not searched for biosignatures for life there directly since the Viking missions. The consensus by astrobiologists is that it may be necessary to access the Martian subsurface to find currently habitable environments.[49]

In 1965, the Mariner 4 probe discovered that Mars had no global magnetic field that would protect the planet from potentially life-threatening cosmic radiation and solar radiation; observations made in the late 1990s by the Mars Global Surveyor confirmed this discovery.[53] Scientists speculate that the lack of magnetic shielding helped the solar wind blow away much of Mars's atmosphere over the course of several billion years.[54] As a result, the planet has been vulnerable to radiation from space for about 4billion years.[55]

Recent in-situ data from Curiosity rover indicates that ionizing radiation from galactic cosmic rays (GCR) and solar particle events (SPE) may not be a limiting factor in habitability assessments for present-day surface life on Mars. The level of 76 mGy per year measured by Curiosity is similar to levels inside the ISS.[56]

Curiosity rover measured ionizing radiation levels of 76 mGy per year.[57] This level of ionizing radiation is sterilizing for dormant life on the surface of Mars. It varies considerably in habitability depending on its orbital eccentricity and the tilt of its axis. If the surface life has been reanimated as recently as 450,000 years ago, then rovers on Mars could find dormant but still viable life at a depth of one meter below the surface, according to an estimate.[58] Even the hardiest cells known could not possibly survive the cosmic radiation near the surface of Mars since Mars lost its protective magnetosphere and atmosphere.[59][60] After mapping cosmic radiation levels at various depths on Mars, researchers have concluded that over time, any life within the first several meters of the planet's surface would be killed by lethal doses of cosmic radiation.[59][61][62] The team calculated that the cumulative damage to DNA and RNA by cosmic radiation would limit retrieving viable dormant cells on Mars to depths greater than 7.5 meters below the planet's surface.[61]Even the most radiation-tolerant terrestrial bacteria would survive in dormant spore state only 18,000 years at the surface; at 2 metersthe greatest depth at which the ExoMars rover will be capable of reachingsurvival time would be 90,000 to half a million years, depending on the type of rock.[63]

Data collected by the Radiation assessment detector (RAD) instrument on board the Curiosity rover revealed that the absorbed dose measured is 76 mGy/year at the surface,[64] and that "ionizing radiation strongly influences chemical compositions and structures, especially for water, salts, and redox-sensitive components such as organic molecules."[64] Regardless of the source of Martian organic compounds (meteoric, geological, or biological), its carbon bonds are susceptible to breaking and reconfiguring with surrounding elements by ionizing charged particle radiation.[64] These improved subsurface radiation estimates give insight into the potential for the preservation of possible organic biosignatures as a function of depth as well as survival times of possible microbial or bacterial life forms left dormant beneath the surface.[64] The report concludes that the in situ "surface measurementsand subsurface estimatesconstrain the preservation window for Martian organic matter following exhumation and exposure to ionizing radiation in the top few meters of the Martian surface."[64]

In September 2017, NASA reported Radiation levels on the surface of the planet Mars were temporarily doubled and were associated with an aurora 25 times brighter than any observed earlier, due to a major, and unexpected, solar storm in the middle of the month.[65]

On UV radiation, a 2014 report concludes [66] that "[T]he Martian UV radiation environment is rapidly lethal to unshielded microbes but can be attenuated by global dust storms and shielded completely by < 1 mm of regolith or by other organisms." In addition, laboratory research published in July 2017 demonstrated that UV irradiated perchlorates cause a 10.8-fold increase in cell death when compared to cells exposed to UV radiation after 60seconds of exposure.[67][68] The penetration depth of UV radiation into soils is in the sub-millimeter to millimeter range and depends on the properties of the soil.[68]

The Martian regolith is known to contain a maximum of 0.5% (w/v) perchlorate (ClO4) that is toxic for most living organisms,[69] but since they drastically lower the freezing point of water and a few extremophiles can use it as an energy source (see Perchlorates - Biology) and grow at concentrations of up to 30% (w/v) sodium perchlorate[70] by physiologically adapting to increasing perchlorate concentrations,[71] it has prompted speculation of what their influence would be on habitability.[67][70][72][73][74]

Research published in July 2017 shows that when irradiated with a simulated Martian UV flux, perchlorates become even more lethal to bacteria (bactericide). Even dormant spores lost viability within minutes.[67] In addition, two other compounds of the Martian surface, iron oxides and hydrogen peroxide, act in synergy with irradiated perchlorates to cause a 10.8-fold increase in cell death when compared to cells exposed to UV radiation after 60seconds of exposure.[67][68] It was also found that abraded silicates (quartz and basalt) lead to the formation of toxic reactive oxygen species.[75] The researchers concluded that "the surface of Mars is lethal to vegetative cells and renders much of the surface and near-surface regions uninhabitable."[76] This research demonstrates that the present-day surface is more uninhabitable than previously thought,[67][77] and reinforces the notion to inspect at least a few meters into the ground to ensure the levels of radiation would be relatively low.[77][78]

However, researcher Kennda Lynch discovered the first-known instance of a habitat containing perchlorates and perchlorates-reducing bacteria in an analog environment: a paleolake in Pilot Valley, Great Salt Lake Desert, Utah.[79] She has been studying the biosignatures of these microbes, and is hoping that the Mars Perseverance rover will find matching biosignatures at its Jezero Crater site.[80][81]

Recurrent slope lineae (RSL) features form on Sun-facing slopes at times of the year when the local temperatures reach above the melting point for ice. The streaks grow in spring, widen in late summer and then fade away in autumn. This is hard to model in any other way except as involving liquid water in some form, though the streaks themselves are thought to be a secondary effect and not a direct indication of the dampness of the regolith. Although these features are now confirmed to involve liquid water in some form, the water could be either too cold or too salty for life. At present they are treated as potentially habitable, as "Uncertain Regions, to be treated as Special Regions".).[82][83] They were suspected as involving flowing brines back then.[84][85][86][87]

The thermodynamic availability of water (water activity) strictly limits microbial propagation on Earth, particularly in hypersaline environments, and there are indications that the brine ionic strength is a barrier to the habitability of Mars. Experiments show that high ionic strength, driven to extremes on Mars by the ubiquitous occurrence of divalent ions, "renders these environments uninhabitable despite the presence of biologically available water."[88]

After carbon, nitrogen is arguably the most important element needed for life. Thus, measurements of nitrate over the range of 0.1% to 5% are required to address the question of its occurrence and distribution. There is nitrogen (as N2) in the atmosphere at low levels, but this is not adequate to support nitrogen fixation for biological incorporation.[89] Nitrogen in the form of nitrate could be a resource for human exploration both as a nutrient for plant growth and for use in chemical processes. On Earth, nitrates correlate with perchlorates in desert environments, and this may also be true on Mars. Nitrate is expected to be stable on Mars and to have formed by thermal shock from impact or volcanic plume lightning on ancient Mars.[90]

On March 24, 2015, NASA reported that the SAM instrument on the Curiosity rover detected nitrates by heating surface sediments. The nitrogen in nitrate is in a "fixed" state, meaning that it is in an oxidized form that can be used by living organisms. The discovery supports the notion that ancient Mars may have been hospitable for life.[90][91][92] It is suspected that all nitrate on Mars is a relic, with no modern contribution.[93] Nitrate abundance ranges from non-detection to 681 304mg/kg in the samples examined until late 2017.[93] Modeling indicates that the transient condensed water films on the surface should be transported to lower depths (10 m) potentially transporting nitrates, where subsurface microorganisms could thrive.[94]

In contrast, phosphate, one of the chemical nutrients thought to be essential for life, is readily available on Mars.[95]

Further complicating estimates of the habitability of the Martian surface is the fact that very little is known about the growth of microorganisms at pressures close to those on the surface of Mars. Some teams determined that some bacteria may be capable of cellular replication down to 25 mbar, but that is still above the atmospheric pressures found on Mars (range 114 mbar).[96] In another study, twenty-six strains of bacteria were chosen based on their recovery from spacecraft assembly facilities, and only Serratia liquefaciens strain ATCC 27592 exhibited growth at 7 mbar, 0C, and CO2-enriched anoxic atmospheres.[96]

Liquid water is a necessary but not sufficient condition for life as humans know it, as habitability is a function of a multitude of environmental parameters.[97] Liquid water cannot exist on the surface of Mars except at the lowest elevations for minutes or hours.[98][99] Liquid water does not appear at the surface itself,[100] but it could form in minuscule amounts around dust particles in snow heated by the Sun.[101][102][unreliable source?] Also, the ancient equatorial ice sheets beneath the ground may slowly sublimate or melt, accessible from the surface via caves.[103][104][105][106]

Water on Mars exists almost exclusively as water ice, located in the Martian polar ice caps and under the shallow Martian surface even at more temperate latitudes.[110][111] A small amount of water vapor is present in the atmosphere.[112] There are no bodies of liquid water on the Martian surface because its atmospheric pressure at the surface averages 600 pascals (0.087psi)about 0.6% of Earth's mean sea level pressureand because the temperature is far too low, (210K (63C)) leading to immediate freezing. Despite this, about 3.8billion years ago,[113] there was a denser atmosphere, higher temperature, and vast amounts of liquid water flowed on the surface,[114][115][116][117] including large oceans.[118][119][120][121][122]

It has been estimated that the primordial oceans on Mars would have covered between 36%[123] and 75% of the planet.[124] On November 22, 2016, NASA reported finding a large amount of underground ice in the Utopia Planitia region of Mars. The volume of water detected has been estimated to be equivalent to the volume of water in Lake Superior.[107][108][109]Analysis of Martian sandstones, using data obtained from orbital spectrometry, suggests that the waters that previously existed on the surface of Mars would have had too high a salinity to support most Earth-like life. Tosca et al. found that the Martian water in the locations they studied all had water activity, aw 0.78 to 0.86a level fatal to most Terrestrial life.[125] Haloarchaea, however, are able to live in hypersaline solutions, up to the saturation point.[126]

In June 2000, possible evidence for current liquid water flowing at the surface of Mars was discovered in the form of flood-like gullies.[127][128] Additional similar images were published in 2006, taken by the Mars Global Surveyor, that suggested that water occasionally flows on the surface of Mars. The images showed changes in steep crater walls and sediment deposits, providing the strongest evidence yet that water coursed through them as recently as several years ago.

There is disagreement in the scientific community as to whether or not the recent gully streaks were formed by liquid water. Some suggest the flows were merely dry sand flows.[129][130][131] Others suggest it may be liquid brine near the surface,[132][133][134] but the exact source of the water and the mechanism behind its motion are not understood.[135]

In July 2018, scientists reported the discovery of a subglacial lake on Mars, 1.5km (0.93mi) below the southern polar ice cap, and extending sideways about 20km (12mi), the first known stable body of water on the planet.[136][137][138][139] The lake was discovered using the MARSIS radar on board the Mars Express orbiter, and the profiles were collected between May 2012 and December 2015.[140] The lake is centered at 193E, 81S, a flat area that does not exhibit any peculiar topographic characteristics but is surrounded by higher ground, except on its eastern side, where there is a depression.[136]

In May 2007, the Spirit rover disturbed a patch of ground with its inoperative wheel, uncovering an area 90% rich in silica.[141] The feature is reminiscent of the effect of hot spring water or steam coming into contact with volcanic rocks. Scientists consider this as evidence of a past environment that may have been favorable for microbial life and theorize that one possible origin for the silica may have been produced by the interaction of soil with acid vapors produced by volcanic activity in the presence of water.[142]

Based on Earth analogs, hydrothermal systems on Mars would be highly attractive for their potential for preserving organic and inorganic biosignatures.[143][144][145] For this reason, hydrothermal deposits are regarded as important targets in the exploration for fossil evidence of ancient Martian life.[146][147][148]

In May 2017, evidence of the earliest known life on land on Earth may have been found in 3.48-billion-year-old geyserite and other related mineral deposits (often found around hot springs and geysers) uncovered in the Pilbara Craton of Western Australia.[149][150] These findings may be helpful in deciding where best to search for early signs of life on the planet Mars.[149][150]

Methane (CH4) is chemically unstable in the current oxidizing atmosphere of Mars. It would quickly break down due to ultraviolet radiation from the Sun and chemical reactions with other gases. Therefore, a persistent presence of methane in the atmosphere may imply the existence of a source to continually replenish the gas.

Trace amounts of methane, at the level of several parts per billion (ppb), were first reported in Mars's atmosphere by a team at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in 2003.[151][152] Large differences in the abundances were measured between observations taken in 2003 and 2006, which suggested that the methane was locally concentrated and probably seasonal.[153] On June 7, 2018, NASA announced it has detected a seasonal variation of methane levels on Mars.[15][154][47][48][155][156][157][46]

The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), launched in March 2016, began on April 21, 2018, to map the concentration and sources of methane in the atmosphere,[158][159] as well as its decomposition products such as formaldehyde and methanol. As of May 2019, the Trace Gas Orbiter showed that the concentration of methane is under detectable level (< 0.05 ppbv).[160][161]

Curiosity detected a cyclical seasonal variation in atmospheric methane.

The principal candidates for the origin of Mars's methane include non-biological processes such as water-rock reactions, radiolysis of water, and pyrite formation, all of which produce H2 that could then generate methane and other hydrocarbons via FischerTropsch synthesis with CO and CO2.[162] It has also been shown that methane could be produced by a process involving water, carbon dioxide, and the mineral olivine, which is known to be common on Mars.[163] Although geologic sources of methane such as serpentinization are possible, the lack of current volcanism, hydrothermal activity or hotspots[164] are not favorable for geologic methane.

Living microorganisms, such as methanogens, are another possible source, but no evidence for the presence of such organisms has been found on Mars,[165][166][167] until June 2019 as methane was detected by the Curiosity rover.[168] Methanogens do not require oxygen or organic nutrients, are non-photosynthetic, use hydrogen as their energy source and carbon dioxide (CO2) as their carbon source, so they could exist in subsurface environments on Mars.[169] If microscopic Martian life is producing the methane, it probably resides far below the surface, where it is still warm enough for liquid water to exist.[170]

Since the 2003 discovery of methane in the atmosphere, some scientists have been designing models and in vitro experiments testing the growth of methanogenic bacteria on simulated Martian soil, where all four methanogen strains tested produced substantial levels of methane, even in the presence of 1.0wt% perchlorate salt.[171]

A team led by Levin suggested that both phenomenamethane production and degradationcould be accounted for by an ecology of methane-producing and methane-consuming microorganisms.[172][173]

Research at the University of Arkansas presented in June 2015 suggested that some methanogens could survive in Mars's low pressure. Rebecca Mickol found that in her laboratory, four species of methanogens survived low-pressure conditions that were similar to a subsurface liquid aquifer on Mars. The four species that she tested were Methanothermobacter wolfeii, Methanosarcina barkeri, Methanobacterium formicicum, and Methanococcus maripaludis.[169] In June 2012, scientists reported that measuring the ratio of hydrogen and methane levels on Mars may help determine the likelihood of life on Mars.[165][166] According to the scientists, "low H2/CH4 ratios (less than approximately 40)" would "indicate that life is likely present and active".[165] The observed ratios in the lower Martian atmosphere were "approximately 10 times" higher "suggesting that biological processes may not be responsible for the observed CH4".[165] The scientists suggested measuring the H2 and CH4 flux at the Martian surface for a more accurate assessment. Other scientists have recently reported methods of detecting hydrogen and methane in extraterrestrial atmospheres.[174][175]

Even if rover missions determine that microscopic Martian life is the seasonal source of the methane, the life forms probably reside far below the surface, outside of the rover's reach.[176]

In February 2005, it was announced that the Planetary Fourier Spectrometer (PFS) on the European Space Agency's Mars Express Orbiter had detected traces of formaldehyde in the atmosphere of Mars. Vittorio Formisano, the director of the PFS, has speculated that the formaldehyde could be the byproduct of the oxidation of methane and, according to him, would provide evidence that Mars is either extremely geologically active or harboring colonies of microbial life.[177][178] NASA scientists consider the preliminary findings well worth a follow-up but have also rejected the claims of life.[179][180]

The 1970s Viking program placed two identical landers on the surface of Mars tasked to look for biosignatures of microbial life on the surface. Of the four experiments performed by each Viking lander, only the 'Labeled Release' (LR) experiment gave a positive result for metabolism, while the other three did not detect organic compounds. The LR was a specific experiment designed to test only a narrowly defined critical aspect of the theory concerning the possibility of life on Mars; therefore, the overall results were declared inconclusive.[22] No Mars lander mission has found meaningful traces of biomolecules or biosignatures. The claim of extant microbial life on Mars is based on old data collected by the Viking landers, currently reinterpreted as sufficient evidence of life, mainly by Gilbert Levin,[181][182] Joseph D. Miller,[183] Navarro,[184] Giorgio Bianciardi and Patricia Ann Straat,[185] that the Viking LR experiments detected extant microbial life on Mars.

Assessments published in December 2010 by Rafael Navarro-Gonzles[186][187][188][189] indicate that organic compounds "could have been present" in the soil analyzed by both Viking 1 and 2. The study determined that perchloratediscovered in 2008 by Phoenix lander[190][191]can destroy organic compounds when heated, and produce chloromethane and dichloromethane as a byproduct, the identical chlorine compounds discovered by both Viking landers when they performed the same tests on Mars. Because perchlorate would have broken down any Martian organics, the question of whether or not Viking found organic compounds is still wide open.[192][193]

The Labeled Release evidence was not generally accepted initially, and, to this day lacks the consensus of the scientific community.[194]

As of 2018, there are 224 known Martian meteorites (some of which were found in several fragments).[195] These are valuable because they are the only physical samples of Mars available to Earth-bound laboratories. Some researchers have argued that microscopic morphological features found in ALH84001 are biomorphs, however this interpretation has been highly controversial and is not supported by the majority of researchers in the field.[196]

Seven criteria have been established for the recognition of past life within terrestrial geologic samples. Those criteria are:[196]

For general acceptance of past life in a geologic sample, essentially most or all of these criteria must be met. All seven criteria have not yet been met for any of the Martian samples.[196]

In 1996, the Martian meteorite ALH84001, a specimen that is much older than the majority of Martian meteorites that have been recovered so far, received considerable attention when a group of NASA scientists led by David S. McKay reported microscopic features and geochemical anomalies that they considered to be best explained by the rock having hosted Martian bacteria in the distant past. Some of these features resembled terrestrial bacteria, aside from their being much smaller than any known form of life. Much controversy arose over this claim, and ultimately all of the evidence McKay's team cited as evidence of life was found to be explainable by non-biological processes. Although the scientific community has largely rejected the claim ALH 84001 contains evidence of ancient Martian life, the controversy associated with it is now seen as a historically significant moment in the development of exobiology.[197][198]

The Nakhla meteorite fell on Earth on June 28, 1911, on the locality of Nakhla, Alexandria, Egypt.[199][200]

In 1998, a team from NASA's Johnson Space Center obtained a small sample for analysis. Researchers found preterrestrial aqueous alteration phases and objects[201] of the size and shape consistent with Earthly fossilized nanobacteria.Analysis with gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (GC-MS) studied its high molecular weight polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in 2000, and NASA scientists concluded that as much as 75% of the organic compounds in Nakhla "may not be recent terrestrial contamination".[196][202]

This caused additional interest in this meteorite, so in 2006, NASA managed to obtain an additional and larger sample from the London Natural History Museum. On this second sample, a large dendritic carbon content was observed. When the results and evidence were published in 2006, some independent researchers claimed that the carbon deposits are of biologic origin. It was remarked that since carbon is the fourth most abundant element in the Universe, finding it in curious patterns is not indicative or suggestive of biological origin.[203][204]

The Shergotty meteorite, a 4 kilograms (8.8lb) Martian meteorite, fell on Earth on Shergotty, India on August 25, 1865, and was retrieved by witnesses almost immediately.[205] It is composed mostly of pyroxene and thought to have undergone preterrestrial aqueous alteration for several centuries. Certain features in its interior suggest remnants of a biofilm and its associated microbial communities.[196]

Yamato 000593 is the second largest meteorite from Mars found on Earth. Studies suggest the Martian meteorite was formed about 1.3billion years ago from a lava flow on Mars. An impact occurred on Mars about 12million years ago and ejected the meteorite from the Martian surface into space. The meteorite landed on Earth in Antarctica about 50,000 years ago. The mass of the meteorite is 13.7kg (30lb) and it has been found to contain evidence of past water movement.[206][207][208] At a microscopic level, spheres are found in the meteorite that are rich in carbon compared to surrounding areas that lack such spheres. The carbon-rich spheres may have been formed by biotic activity according to NASA scientists.[206][207][208]

Organismsubstrate interactions and their products are important biosignatures on Earth as they represent direct evidence of biological behaviour.[209] It was the recovery of fossilized products of life-substrate interactions (ichnofossils) that has revealed biological activities in the early history of life on the Earth,e.g., Proterozoic burrows, Archean microborings and stromatolites.[210][211][212][213][214][215] Two major ichnofossil-like structures have been reported from Mars, i.e. the stick-like structures from Vera Rubin Ridge and the microtunnels from Martian Meteorites.

Observations at Vera Rubin Ridge by the Mars Space Laboratory rover Curiosity show millimetric, elongate structures preserved in sedimentary rocks deposited in fluvio-lacustrine environments within Gale Crater. Morphometric and topologic data are unique to the stick-like structures among Martian geological features and show that ichnofossils are among the closest morphological analogues of these unique features.[216] Nevertheless, available data cannot fully disprove two major abiotic hypotheses, that are sedimentary cracking and evaporitic crystal growth as genetic processes for the structures.

Microtunnels have been described from Martian meteorites. They consist of straight to curved microtunnels that may contain areas of enhanced carbon abundance. The morphology of the curved microtunnels is consistent with biogenic traces on Earth, including microbioerosion traces observed in basaltic glasses.[217][218][215] Further studies are needed to confirm biogenicity.

Artist's concept showing sand-laden jets erupt from geysers on Mars.

Close up of dark dune spots, probably created by cold geyser-like eruptions.

The seasonal frosting and defrosting of the southern ice cap results in the formation of spider-like radial channels carved on 1-meter thick ice by sunlight. Then, sublimed CO2 and probably water increase pressure in their interior producing geyser-like eruptions of cold fluids often mixed with dark basaltic sand or mud.[219][220][221][222] This process is rapid, observed happening in the space of a few days, weeks or months, a growth rate rather unusual in geology especially for Mars.[223]

A team of Hungarian scientists propose that the geysers' most visible features, dark dune spots and spider channels, may be colonies of photosynthetic Martian microorganisms, which over-winter beneath the ice cap, and as the sunlight returns to the pole during early spring, light penetrates the ice, the microorganisms photosynthesize and heat their immediate surroundings. A pocket of liquid water, which would normally evaporate instantly in the thin Martian atmosphere, is trapped around them by the overlying ice. As this ice layer thins, the microorganisms show through grey. When the layer has completely melted, the microorganisms rapidly desiccate and turn black, surrounded by a grey aureole.[224][225][226] The Hungarian scientists believe that even a complex sublimation process is insufficient to explain the formation and evolution of the dark dune spots in space and time.[227][228] Since their discovery, fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke promoted these formations as deserving of study from an astrobiological perspective.[229]

A multinational European team suggests that if liquid water is present in the spiders' channels during their annual defrost cycle, they might provide a niche where certain microscopic life forms could have retreated and adapted while sheltered from solar radiation.[230] A British team also considers the possibility that organic matter, microbes, or even simple plants might co-exist with these inorganic formations, especially if the mechanism includes liquid water and a geothermal energy source.[223] They also remark that the majority of geological structures may be accounted for without invoking any organic "life on Mars" hypothesis.[223] It has been proposed to develop the Mars Geyser Hopper lander to study the geysers up close.[231]

Planetary protection of Mars aims to prevent biological contamination of the planet.[232] A major goal is to preserve the planetary record of natural processes by preventing human-caused microbial introductions, also called forward contamination. There is abundant evidence as to what can happen when organisms from regions on Earth that have been isolated from one another for significant periods of time are introduced into each other's environment. Species that are constrained in one environment can thrive often out of control in another environment much to the detriment of the original species that were present. In some ways, this problem could be compounded if life forms from one planet were introduced into the totally alien ecology of another world.[233]

The prime concern of hardware contaminating Mars derives from incomplete spacecraft sterilization of some hardy terrestrial bacteria (extremophiles) despite best efforts.[26][234] Hardware includes landers, crashed probes, end-of-mission disposal of hardware, and the hard landing of entry, descent, and landing systems. This has prompted research on survival rates of radiation-resistant microorganisms including the species Deinococcus radiodurans and genera Brevundimonas, Rhodococcus, and Pseudomonas under simulated Martian conditions.[235] Results from one of these experimental irradiation experiments, combined with previous radiation modeling, indicate that Brevundimonas sp. MV.7 emplaced only 30cm deep in Martian dust could survive the cosmic radiation for up to 100,000 years before suffering 106 population reduction.[235] The diurnal Mars-like cycles in temperature and relative humidity affected the viability of Deinococcus radiodurans cells quite severely.[236] In other simulations, Deinococcus radiodurans also failed to grow under low atmospheric pressure, under 0C, or in the absence of oxygen.[237]

Since the 1950s, researchers have used containers that simulate environmental conditions on Mars to determine the viability of a variety of lifeforms on Mars. Such devices, called "Mars jars" or "Mars simulation chambers", were first described and used in U.S. Air Force research in the 1950s by Hubertus Strughold, and popularized in civilian research by Joshua Lederberg and Carl Sagan.[238]

On April 26, 2012, scientists reported that an extremophile lichen survived and showed remarkable results on the adaptation capacity of photosynthetic activity within the simulation time of 34 days under Martian conditions in the Mars Simulation Laboratory (MSL) maintained by the German Aerospace Center (DLR).[239][240][242][243][244] The ability to survive in an environment is not the same as the ability to thrive, reproduce, and evolve in that same environment, necessitating further study.[27][26]

Although numerous studies point to resistance to some of Mars conditions, they do so separately, and none has considered the full range of Martian surface conditions, including temperature, pressure, atmospheric composition, radiation, humidity, oxidizing regolith, and others, all at the same time and in combination.[245] Laboratory simulations show that whenever multiple lethal factors are combined, the survival rates plummet quickly.[27]

Astrobiologists funded by NASA are researching the limits of microbial life in solutions with high salt concentrations at low temperature.[246] Any body of liquid water under the polar ice caps or underground is likely to exist under high hydrostatic pressure and have a significant salt concentration. They know that the landing site of Phoenix lander, was found to be regolith cemented with water ice and salts, and the soil samples likely contained magnesium sulfate, magnesium perchlorate, sodium perchlorate, potassium perchlorate, sodium chloride and calcium carbonate.[246][247][248] Earth bacteria capable of growth and reproduction in the presence of highly salted solutions, called halophile or "salt-lover", were tested for survival using salts commonly found on Mars and at decreasing temperatures.[246] The species tested include Halomonas, Marinococcus, Nesterenkonia, and Virgibacillus.[246] Laboratory simulations show that whenever multiple Martian environmental factors are combined, the survival rates plummet quickly,[27] however, halophile bacteria were grown in a lab in water solutions containing more than 25% of salts common on Mars, and starting in 2019, the experiments will incorporate exposure to low temperature, salts, and high pressure.[246]

Mars-1 was the first spacecraft launched to Mars in 1962,[249] but communication was lost while en route to Mars. With Mars-2 and Mars-3 in 19711972, information was obtained on the nature of the surface rocks and altitude profiles of the surface density of the soil, its thermal conductivity, and thermal anomalies detected on the surface of Mars. The program found that its northern polar cap has a temperature below 110C (166F) and that the water vapor content in the atmosphere of Mars is five thousand times less than on Earth. No signs of life were found.[250]

Mariner Crater, as seen by Mariner 4 in 1965. Pictures like this suggested that Mars is too dry for any kind of life.

Mariner 4 probe performed the first successful flyby of the planet Mars, returning the first pictures of the Martian surface in 1965. The photographs showed an arid Mars without rivers, oceans, or any signs of life. Further, it revealed that the surface (at least the parts that it photographed) was covered in craters, indicating a lack of plate tectonics and weathering of any kind for the last 4billion years. The probe also found that Mars has no global magnetic field that would protect the planet from potentially life-threatening cosmic rays. The probe was able to calculate the atmospheric pressure on the planet to be about 0.6 kPa (compared to Earth's 101.3 kPa), meaning that liquid water could not exist on the planet's surface.[22] After Mariner 4, the search for life on Mars changed to a search for bacteria-like living organisms rather than for multicellular organisms, as the environment was clearly too harsh for these.[22][251][252]

Liquid water is necessary for known life and metabolism, so if water was present on Mars, the chances of it having supported life may have been determinant. The Viking orbiters found evidence of possible river valleys in many areas, erosion and, in the southern hemisphere, branched streams.[253][254][255]

The primary mission of the Viking probes of the mid-1970s was to carry out experiments designed to detect microorganisms in Martian soil because the favorable conditions for the evolution of multicellular organisms ceased some four billion years ago on Mars.[256] The tests were formulated to look for microbial life similar to that found on Earth. Of the four experiments, only the Labeled Release (LR) experiment returned a positive result,[dubious discuss] showing increased 14CO2 production on first exposure of soil to water and nutrients. All scientists agree on two points from the Viking missions: that radiolabeled 14CO2 was evolved in the Labeled Release experiment, and that the GCMS detected no organic molecules. There are vastly different interpretations of what those results imply: A 2011 astrobiology textbook notes that the GCMS was the decisive factor due to which "For most of the Viking scientists, the final conclusion was that the Viking missions failed to detect life in the Martian soil."[257]

Norman Horowitz was the head of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory bioscience section for the Mariner and Viking missions from 1965 to 1976. Horowitz considered that the great versatility of the carbon atom makes it the element most likely to provide solutions, even exotic solutions, to the problems of survival of life on other planets.[258] However, he also considered that the conditions found on Mars were incompatible with carbon based life.

One of the designers of the Labeled Release experiment, Gilbert Levin, believes his results are a definitive diagnostic for life on Mars.[22] Levin's interpretation is disputed by many scientists.[259] A 2006 astrobiology textbook noted that "With unsterilized Terrestrial samples, though, the addition of more nutrients after the initial incubation would then produce still more radioactive gas as the dormant bacteria sprang into action to consume the new dose of food. This was not true of the Martian soil; on Mars, the second and third nutrient injections did not produce any further release of labeled gas."[260] Other scientists argue that superoxides in the soil could have produced this effect without life being present.[261] An almost general consensus discarded the Labeled Release data as evidence of life, because the gas chromatograph and mass spectrometer, designed to identify natural organic matter, did not detect organic molecules.[181] More recently, high levels of organic chemicals, particularly chlorobenzene, were detected in powder drilled from one of the rocks, named "Cumberland", analyzed by the Curiosity rover.[262][263] The results of the Viking mission concerning life are considered by the general expert community as inconclusive.[22][261][264]

In 2007, during a Seminar of the Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution (Washington, D.C., US), Gilbert Levin's investigation was assessed once more.[181] Levin still maintains that his original data were correct, as the positive and negative control experiments were in order.[185] Moreover, Levin's team, on April 12, 2012, reported a statistical speculation, based on old datareinterpreted mathematically through cluster analysisof the Labeled Release experiments, that may suggest evidence of "extant microbial life on Mars".[185][265] Critics counter that the method has not yet been proven effective for differentiating between biological and non-biological processes on Earth so it is premature to draw any conclusions.[266]

A research team from the National Autonomous University of Mexico headed by Rafael Navarro-Gonzlez concluded that the GCMS equipment (TV-GC-MS) used by the Viking program to search for organic molecules, may not be sensitive enough to detect low levels of organics.[189] Klaus Biemann, the principal investigator of the GCMS experiment on Viking wrote a rebuttal.[267] Because of the simplicity of sample handling, TVGCMS is still considered the standard method for organic detection on future Mars missions, so Navarro-Gonzlez suggests that the design of future organic instruments for Mars should include other methods of detection.[189]

After the discovery of perchlorates on Mars by the Phoenix lander, practically the same team of Navarro-Gonzlez published a paper arguing that the Viking GCMS results were compromised by the presence of perchlorates.[268] A 2011 astrobiology textbook notes that "while perchlorate is too poor an oxidizer to reproduce the LR results (under the conditions of that experiment perchlorate does not oxidize organics), it does oxidize, and thus destroy, organics at the higher temperatures used in the Viking GCMS experiment."[269] Biemann has written a commentary critical of this Navarro-Gonzlez paper as well,[270] to which the latter have replied;[271] the exchange was published in December 2011.

The Phoenix mission landed a robotic spacecraft in the polar region of Mars on May 25, 2008, and it operated until November 10, 2008. One of the mission's two primary objectives was to search for a "habitable zone" in the Martian regolith where microbial life could exist, the other main goal being to study the geological history of water on Mars. The lander has a 2.5 meter robotic arm that was capable of digging shallow trenches in the regolith. There was an electrochemistry experiment which analysed the ions in the regolith and the amount and type of antioxidants on Mars. The Viking program data indicate that oxidants on Mars may vary with latitude, noting that Viking 2 saw fewer oxidants than Viking 1 in its more northerly position. Phoenix landed further north still.[272]Phoenix's preliminary data revealed that Mars soil contains perchlorate, and thus may not be as life-friendly as thought earlier.[273][274][191] The pH and salinity level were viewed as benign from the standpoint of biology. The analysers also indicated the presence of bound water and CO2.[275] A recent analysis of Martian meteorite EETA79001 found 0.6 ppm ClO4, 1.4 ppm ClO3, and 16 ppm NO3, most likely of Martian origin. The ClO3 suggests presence of other highly oxidizing oxychlorines such as ClO2 or ClO, produced both by UV oxidation of Cl and X-ray radiolysis of ClO4. Thus only highly refractory and/or well-protected (sub-surface) organics are likely to survive.[276] In addition, recent analysis of the Phoenix WCL showed that the Ca(ClO4)2 in the Phoenix soil has not interacted with liquid water of any form, perhaps for as long as 600 Myr. If it had, the highly soluble Ca(ClO4)2 in contact with liquid water would have formed only CaSO4. This suggests a severely arid environment, with minimal or no liquid water interaction.[277]

The Mars Science Laboratory mission is a NASA project that launched on November 26, 2011, the Curiosity rover, a nuclear-powered robotic vehicle, bearing instruments designed to assess past and present habitability conditions on Mars.[278][279] The Curiosity rover landed on Mars on Aeolis Palus in Gale Crater, near Aeolis Mons (a.k.a. Mount Sharp),[280][281][282][283] on August 6, 2012.[284][285][286]

On December 16, 2014, NASA reported the Curiosity rover detected a "tenfold spike", likely localized, in the amount of methane in the Martian atmosphere. Sample measurements taken "a dozen times over 20 months" showed increases in late 2013 and early 2014, averaging "7 parts of methane per billion in the atmosphere". Before and after that, readings averaged around one-tenth that level.[262][263] In addition, low levels of chlorobenzene (C6H5Cl), were detected in powder drilled from one of the rocks, named "Cumberland", analyzed by the Curiosity rover.[262][263]

The Mars 2020 rover is a Mars planetary rover mission by NASA, launched on 30 July 2020. It is intended to investigate an astrobiologically relevant ancient environment on Mars, investigate its surface geological processes and history, including the assessment of its past habitability and potential for preservation of biosignatures within accessible geological materials.[288]

Some of the main reasons for colonizing Mars include economic interests, long-term scientific research best carried out by humans as opposed to robotic probes, and sheer curiosity. Surface conditions and the presence of water on Mars make it arguably the most hospitable of the planets in the Solar System, other than Earth. Human colonization of Mars would require in situ resource utilization (ISRU); A NASA report states that "applicable frontier technologies include robotics, machine intelligence, nanotechnology, synthetic biology, 3-D printing/additive manufacturing, and autonomy. These technologies combined with the vast natural resources should enable, pre- and post-human arrival ISRU to greatly increase reliability and safety and reduce cost for human colonization of Mars."[291][292][293]

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Coeur dAlene student selected to be on the first high school-aged team to train in the Mars Desert Research Station  KREM.com

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Coeur dAlene student selected to be on the first high school-aged team to train in the Mars Desert Research Station - KREM.com

Marscoin Expo 2022

I have a dream. I have a dream that one day millions of people will live on Mars. What about you? Marscoin is intriguing and worth paying attention to. Everyone is going to Mars: NASA, European Space Agency, the United Arab Emirates, and more! Elon Musks SpaceX is intent on landing " on Mars by 2026"! This future is within reach, and we are here to talk about the future currency of Mars! On July 30th, at the Marscoin Expo, we will brief you about the future currency of Mars! The future decentralized governance systems of Mars. The future of technology for space faring mankind.

On July 30th, at the Marscoin Expo, we will brief you about the concept of Marscoin. We will also introduce our world-wide operating decentralized group of enthusiasts, scientists and developers - our purpose, our beliefs, where we are heading, and what we have done. We are excited to share our view on near and far-future potential regarding Marscoin and its roadmap. We want to unite everyone, connect, and form a community. Lets get you into these professional networks to gain industry-level knowledge. You are part of whats happening! Weve organized influential & certified specialists and insiders to describe why this project matters - and what needs to happen next. Join us for our online, one-day conference. Its free! Heres the link to our second annual expo:

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Marscoin

Carina Johansen/NTB/AFP via Getty Images; Onur Dogman/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images; Gabe Ginsberg/Getty Images; Justin Williams - PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images; Illustration by Kaz Fantone/NPR

Carina Johansen/NTB/AFP via Getty Images; Onur Dogman/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images; Gabe Ginsberg/Getty Images; Justin Williams - PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images; Illustration by Kaz Fantone/NPR

The saga around Elon Musk's deal to buy Twitter has been just that: a months-long soap opera involving lawsuits and subpoenas, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, even a town hall. But why does Musk one of the world's richest and arguably most influential men want a social media platform?

It's Been a Minute host Brittany Luse puts the question to Jill Lepore, political historian and host of The Evening Rocket, a podcast about Musk. Lepore says that the idea of being a savior of free speech would appeal to Musk, who has built around himself a mythology inspired by what she sees as a misinterpretation of mid-twentieth century science fiction.

Lepore discusses how Musk crafted a powerful narrative that millions around the world have bought into; how he draws from science fiction and film; and why we need to be more critical of billionaire visionaries.

Y0u can listen to the full episode at the top of the page, or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. These excerpts have been edited for length and clarity.

On Musk's self-mythology

Brittany Luse: In a nutshell, what is the myth that you see Elon Musk trying to sell about himself?

Lepore: The story that he tells about his own life is kind of ripped out of the pages of early science fiction. He's a boy wonder, right? He's this kind of boy genius. And there's a whole origin story about Musk in South Africa that involves winning an award for a computer game that he wrote as a boy. He's marketed as this figure straight out of comic books. And the version of the story that he's kind of bandying about now is one in which he's the ultimate futurist. He is the visionary innovator, an engineer-slash-entrepreneur who will bring the light of human civilization to the stars and colonize Mars.

On turning to science fiction for inspiration

Lepore: Musk often talks about how he was transformed as a boy by reading Isaac Asimov and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. These books, he will say, taught him that humankind must reach for the stars, that we must colonize other planets in order to bring the light of human consciousness elsewhere. For Musk, his vision of himself is as the hero of a science fiction story from the 1950s. And yet he completely misreads that very science fiction.

Luse: You brought up Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. That was also one of my favorite books when I was around the same age. I read it in middle school. I loved it. I thought it was hilarious. Different life trajectories, me and Elon Musk. But you point out in your podcast, he names a space ship after the Heart of Gold spaceship that's also in the book. He calls Douglas Adams, the author, one of his favorite philosophers. And yet, as you just said, you believe that he misses the point of the book. How does he miss?

Lepore: Yeah so, the Hitchhiker's Guide stories which are comedies, these big BBC radio plays written in the '70s were an indictment of the widening inequalities of wealth in Britain and around the world. The real bad guys in the story are these super wealthy people who want to build luxury planets where the poor can serve them. And they were broadcast to South Africa, to Pretoria, where Elon Musk grew up under apartheid, in a wholly white community where all the labor was done by Black people living under conditions of profound degradation and deprivation. And Douglas Adams had on the manual typewriter with which he typed the plays and then later the books he had a sticker that read, "end apartheid."

Hitchhiker's Guide is essentially about the injustice of advanced capitalism, as is much science fiction. We think about H.G. Wells writing The Time Machine. A lot of these science fiction writers are [indicting] colonialism in particular. Like, don't go to other planets and make other people your slaves. Wells was a big critic of the British Empire and British imperialism, especially in Africa. [Musk] is actually the villain of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. He is not Arthur Dent. He's Zaphod Beeblebrox. Jeff Bezos is the same way. They talk about having read all this science fiction as boys, which inspired why they found these rocket companies later in life.

But of course, science fiction completely changed around the time that Douglas Adams was writing. You see the emergence of Afrofuturism or someone like Octavia Butler, Ursula K. Le Guin, and this kind of feminist science fiction and this interesting kind of transgender way of thinking about alternative universes and possibilities in which the future involves a lot of suffering. When I hear Elon Musk talk about the future, it really sounds to me like a very, very sad version of the past.

On being the 'real-life Iron Man'

Luse: The writers of Marvel's Iron Man cited Elon Musk as an inspiration for Tony Stark. And you also pointed out that the first Iron Man movie came out the same year the Tesla Roadsters were released. Can you talk about how the fictionalized version of Elon Musk in Tony Stark then influenced the real Elon Musk?

Lepore: It's sort of an interesting reciprocity. I mean, Iron Man dates to the 1960s when he's created in comic books by Stan Lee. The character is very much updated and kind of wrapped around the idea of Elon Musk, where you can take the same storyline about Tony Stark from the '60s and glue to it the kind of cultural fascination with the Silicon Valley entrepreneur, of which Musk was the best model.

And I don't want to be heard to be somehow discrediting Musk's accomplishments. He has this extraordinary career as a businessman. He goes to Stanford to get a Ph.D. guy's really, really smart drops out to found his first company, moves quickly through a series of startups that are extraordinarily successful. And then around the time of the first Iron Man, Musk moves from from Silicon Valley to Los Angeles, and he becomes a Hollywood figure. You can't really conceive of anyone else doing that. You can't conceive of Bill Gates going to live in Hollywood. So there's this kind of interesting trajectory that takes him from the sort of nerdy Silicon Valley inventor guy to Tony Stark with sexy cars and sexy women.

Luse: What does it say about our society that Elon Musk has become a celebrity in a similar way to somebody like a rock star?

Lepore: Well the happy reading of it is: Celebrities are not celebrated for having ideas. Musk has many ideas. We should be heartened by the idea of someone with engineering genius being celebrated. That's not exactly what he's being celebrated for, but I think in some ways that's maybe the least concerning piece of it.

It's surprising that people aren't more concerned about the idea that you would go from extraordinary, unrivaled business success, to Hollywood fame celebrity stardom, to political aspirations that bring you in and out of the White House, to a pursuit of a position of power possibly over communication across the whole planet. It's very much like a scripted Marvel moment where people keep giving this character more and more power, and the viewer's like, "I think he might be evil." But people still give him more power. This is kind of where we are in the movie moment right now. We just don't quite know.

This episode of 'It's Been a Minute' was produced by Barton Girdwood, Liam McBain, Jessica Mendoza, Janet Woojeong Lee and Jamila Huxtable. Engineering support came from Joby Tanseco and Natasha Branch. It was edited by Jessica Placzek. Our executive producer is Veralyn Williams, our VP of Programming is Yolanda Sangweni and our Senior VP of Programming is Anya Grundmann. You can follow us on Twitter @npritsbeenamin and email us at ibam@npr.org.

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Haunted Montreal recently announced its new ghost tour created for the 2022 Halloween season, set in Old Montreal, featuring twisted tales of deranged ghosts and paranormal activity in the citys most haunted neighborhood.

With its cobblestone streets and timeworn buildings, some dating back to the 1600s, Old Montreal is a popular neighborhood for tourists and residents alike.However, as the site of the French colonial establishment of Ville-Marie in 1642, it also has an extremely dark and disturbing side. The area has witnessed countless horrors brutal colonization, bloody guerilla warfare, unspeakable tragedies, heinous crimes, shocking executions, and the imposition of European Imperial regimes.

The Haunted Old Montreal ghost walk visits the Place dArmes, Cours Le Royer, the Courthouse District, Place Vauquelin, Champs-de-Mars, Jacques Cartier Square, and the infamous Chateau Ramezay areas said to be rife with paranormal activity and ghost-sightings.

Guests will learn the deranged stories of various ghosts and other apparitions, including Marie-Joseph Anglique, a slave woman who was hanged during the New France era; Jeanne Le Ber, a Catholic recluse who frequently self-flagellated; and the Demon of the Htel-Dieu Hospital. Other spirits include the babbling decapitated head of Jean Saint-Pre, wife-murderer Adolphus Dewey and former museum warden and perfectionist Miss ODowd.

The Haunted Old Montreal ghost walk also features dark history, including strange colonial legends and their Indigenous detractors, forgotten cemeteries, devastating fires, sickening tales, unsavory plaques and statues and unmarked colonial sites of torture, barbarity, and execution.

Led by a professional actor and storyteller, this ghost tour will please ghost hunters, history buffs, and Halloween lovers with its creepy tales of paranormal activity and the ghostly spirits that haunt Old Montreal!

Visit Haunted Old Montrealfor more information.

Haunted Montreal

AB

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New ghost tour unearths the grisly side of Old Montreal this Halloween season - The Suburban Newspaper

As the UK gets set to return to launching its own satellites after half a century, where might Britain's space sector be in 2035 and beyond? RICHARD GARDNER reports from Space-Comm Expo22.

Space Comm Expo22 which took place at Farnborough, Hants on 6-7 September presented a timely window on just how much progress is being undertaken to raise the bar on UK involvement in space, generating new policies, innovations, and capabilities needed to deliver on the vast potential that awaits those prepared to invest appropriately.

Once again a new global space-race is underway, with the global space economy expected to grow from 270bn in 2019 to 490bn by 2030, according to the governments National Space Strategy. Furthermore, the UK space sector is determined to grab a much larger proportion of it.

This is as exciting as ever, despite a grim current economic backdrop, as new breakthroughs emerge that are showing how advances in human and robotic space exploration will lead to new sources of raw materials and manufacturing in space. Alongside developments ranging from large, automated orbital platforms to micro-satellites capable of operating individually or within a global mesh, the UK is also well on its way to establishing multiple launch facilities within its own national boundaries for the first time. This opens up capability for speeding the pace of satellite launches and lowering launch costs as well as offering new sector competition.

Any future Moon Base will need more than just solar power to maintain the output needed to provide continuous power generation. Rolls-Royce is designing Micro Reactors for this very purpose. (Rolls-Royce)

The potential for new, lower cost UK military satellite projects is likely to become even more important as it confers greater operational flexibility in national defence planning. Providing UK vertical launch bases, space-ports for air-launches, with infrastructure and control elements, and a new generation of launch vehicles, complete the missing links in the total UK space offering. Alongside sits global leadership in small and micro satellites for LEO use, complex commercial, and military GEO satellites and exploratory space vehicles, including participation in deep space probes and expeditionary planetary programmes.

In a session dedicated to discussing UK National Space Growth, David Morris MP, Deputy Government Whip, told the audience that he was very proud to have been given the portfolio as Space Champion and had previously been Chairman of the Space Group of MPs. He had recently visited Machrihanish in Western Scotland where he saw progress on Skyrora engine testing in preparation for a UK launch, with five sites now agreed for development. He said, The UK is now playing catch-up, 50 years on, to re-enter a global market for orbital delivery where we aim to capture a 10% share, starting later this year. This will bring new high skill employment opportunities across the sector and we look forward to numbers rising from 47K to 100K as new jobs emerge and innovative applications, such as manufacturing in space, receive incentivised commercial as well as official support.

Morris added that via the Return to the Moon programme the UK had an important communications role in tracking space vehicle movements and also expertise in producing service and habitation modules that would be needed for a Moon station. He said that the wider public still take for granted the benefits brought about in everyday life by space access, and they dont realise that there is a return of 12 for every 1 invested. He said, The UKs space effort is a lot more than simply the sum of its parts, and we should speak out to be heard in Government.

Space Comm Expo22 took place at Farnborough on 6-7 September. (Richard Gardner/RAeS)

Space Comm Expo is now the UKs biggest space-focussed event, and provided a very encouraging glimpse of progress through top-level conference sessions featuring 80 keynote speakers and supported by over 150 exhibitors, representing a 65% increase over the previous event. The speaker programmes extended over the shows two days, and the subjects included: Duel-use satellites- civil and military; Nano-micro-satellites, Integrating and sharing the digital fabric of space; Prospects for the colonisation of Mars; Connectivity with the Moon; Sustainability for Small Satellites; Space and weather prediction; Future space travel; Space security; Space partnerships; Space cyber security; Space domain protection; Space and Net Zero and the Economic development of space. The sessions were introduced by familiar television space and science presenters Dallas Campbell and Dr Maggie Aderin Pocock. Amongst the guest speakers were: Dr Paul Bate, CEO, UK Space; John Hanley, Chair, UK Space; Ian Annett, Deputy CEO Project Delivery, UK Space; Kevin Craven, CEO ADS; Andrew Staniland, CEO, Thales Alenia; Rebecca Evernden, Director for Space, BEISD; Elizabeth Seward, Head of Space Strategy, BAE Systems; Pam Underwood, Director, Spaceports, FAA; and Malissa Thorpe, CEO Spaceport Cornwall.

The strong international representation at the show was reflected in the numbers of overseas businesses exhibiting and participating in conference sessions, some 35%, including 20% from the US. Many now have UK bases as well as partnering agreements, with expanding centres of excellence, working closely with the UK Space Agency, UK regulatory authorities and various UK government-supported specialist advanced technology organisations and academia.

A computer generated image of the Skynet 5D satellite in orbit. The Skynet project sustains approximately 800 British jobs. (MoD)

While other specialised military space-focused conferences have been held recently in the UK, defence was also featured in the sessions. Airbus and Northrop Grumman have combined to bring the best of UK and US space communications capabilities together in the latest progression of the UKs Skynet programme, originally started 50 years ago. It is at the forefront of providing secure global military communications for UK Forces and its allies. Airbus is the prime integrator and the UK MoD has supported an expansion of the Skynet architecture which includes upgraded ground stations as well as the supply of new satellites.

Protecting Global Security was the subject of a session which included Air Commodore Mark Flewen, Head of Operations, Plans and Training in UK Space Command. He underlined the criticality of collaboration to secure data and intelligence that was essential to decision-making in the face of an evolving global threat. Flewen told the audience, Anti-satellite activities, including interference, were increasing with methods including interception, jamming and laser dazzling, and a UK Space Ops Centre was expanding with a commercial integration cell, to enable us to monitor nefarious activity out there. This will also have the capability for the development, procurement and operation of new space assets.

Cardiff-based Space Forge is pioneering returnable satellites that are designed for manufacturing next generation super materials in space. (Space Forge)

Many speakers made reference to the need to encourage young specialists to provide an expanding future workforce of scientists, engineers and innovators. It should be a question of training up the best of the best talented candidates working closely with academia, but recognising that suitable talent from abroad should not be excluded, and also due inclusion of those enterprising innovators in small start-ups who can offer unconventional solutions that might produce genuine breakthroughs.

One such example is Space Forge, which didnt exist before the Covid crisis, but in less than three years the young team has gone from working in a garage to growing a company that created a small payload, offering experiments relating to space manufacturing, that will be carried into orbit aboard the first new UK launch vehicle. The company believes that the development of returnable and repairable satellites and orbital fabrication will help reduce operating and sustainment costs as well as reducing waste and adding to the total of space debris that is an increasing menace.

Astroscales QR-style magnetic docking plate is designed to be compatible with a variety of capture mechanisms, either magnetic or robotic. (Richard Gardner/RAeS)

One barrier to space manufacturing is limited capacity where it can be done, and reusable space platform architecture is needed. The International Space Station (ISS) was intended to run on until 2030 but with the earlier than planned withdrawal of Russian participation, US-European co-operation on a future orbital base will develop in a different direction.

Apart from its limited internal size, the problem with using the ISS for experimental manufacturing, as discussed in one conference session, is that it created a task backlog ensuring a long waiting time to carry out proposed new experiments.

How to use space infrastructure to get the best value from new investments touched on such issues as how to refuel space platforms to extend orbital life of satellites and how to use robotics to maintain or up-grade them in-orbit, or assist in safe removal. Some of these associated innovations are destined to be expensive and demanding to bring to market, while others are delightfully simple. Just such an example was to be found on the Astroscale stand in the form of a QR-style magnetic docking plate. The plate is designed to be flexible and adaptable and is compatible with a variety of capture mechanisms, either magnetic or robotic. Fixing this onto satellites before launch will allow easy follow-up access in space. Its designed for an in-space life of over 15 years and aimed at future-proofing docking systems on small satellites.

Much was discussed about using the micro-gravity of space to create new materials and components that will support platforms and other activities in space, but space manufacturing for use on Earth also opens up new areas of possible future growth. Making next-generation semi-conductors could extend benefits throughout the terrestrial supply chain, but how and where manufacture might be located, and the products transported back to Earth, opens up new transfer issues. The end-to-end solution, including sustainment of orbital space or Moon-based enabling infrastructure assets, will prove to be highly expensive to establish. Trying to find ways of making these future visions come true is no longer a science-fiction fantasy and the Space Comm exhibition and conference highlighted how the UK Space sector community is rising to many of these new challenges.

Activity covers development of advanced in-space robotics and micro-engineering, the creation of a global connectivity and observation mesh, and all aspects of returning to the Moon to establish bases for long-term, sustainable human habitation and exploration, potential mining of rare minerals, and fabrication of space platforms and assembly of deep space vehicles, and then beyond to the next already identified goal a Mars base. At the core of enabling these bold visions to become a reality will be the mix and availability of human ingenuity and what quantum physics will be able to deliver beyond artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Rolls-Royce has designed Micro Reactors for use on the Moon and other demanding operating environments where continuous, consistent, highly-efficient and emission-free power is demanded. (Rolls-Royce)

The Rolls-Royce exhibition stand featured an eye-catching model of a Micro Reactor, set against an impression of a future Moon Base. The company enjoys a 60 year pedigree in nuclear power provision, including building powerplants for the UKs nuclear submarine fleet. It has now designed Micro Reactors for use where continuous, consistent, highly-efficient and emissions-free power is demanded, in a compact package, operating in demanding operating environments. Space is just one example and comes with its own challenges, but Mark Cheesman, Rolls-Royces Head of Business Development and Future Programmes, explained to AEROSPACE that a future Moon Base will need more than just solar power to maintain the output needed to provide continuous power generation through cycles which include 14 days of dark and surface temperatures which vary from +250 to -100C. NASA is committed to a Fission Surface Power programme that would lead to a full development programme in 2030 and this would act as a steppingstone to a very suitable base solution he explained. The Micro Reactor is a very safe design solution with tiny uranium oxide pellets sealed within silicon carbide layers. This is a dry environment and wont release any fission products. The design is scalable and there are no moving parts and operations would be passive and remotely monitored in use.

In a mining situation either in space or on earth its adoption would slash costs and provide continuous power independently of the day/night conditions for comprehensive power services on the Moon Base. It would also provide a well-suited power solution for a follow up base on Mars. There is always a regulatory challenge dealing with radical new technologies but if any company can deliver on the promise it has been shown that Rolls-Royces optimism is to be believed.

This year's Royal Aeronautical Society President's Conference, hosted by2022 President Peter Round FRAeS, will take place at 4 Hamilton Place and online between 18-19 October and is titled New Space. It will bring together experts and practitioners in order to inform potential users of the current and future capabilities of commercial new space and its benefits to society. Recent rapid increase of availability of launch, and reducing costs of launch, now mean that access to space is a commercial reality. Thousands of companies are now looking at how space can be used that wouldnt have in previous years because it was deemed as unaffordable to do so.

The conference will:

- Look at current and evolving trends in the global space sector from the perspective of the primes, the people and the skills required, finance, new business and infrastructure and the importance of launch as a national capability.- Analyse the need for regulation (congestion in space, space control etc.) and the funding of new space (how do financial markets invest and what does the future look like).- Allow you to hear from new space operators, bringing together an impressive panel of speakers from across the world.- Discuss how the UK can become a space power by 2030 and its path to get there.

For more details, visit:https://www.aerosociety.com/events-calendar/raes-presidents-conference-new-space/

Richard Gardner FRAeS 14 October 2022

See original here:
Competing in the new 'Space Race' - Royal Aeronautical Society

2015 film by Ridley Scott

The Martian is a 2015 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Matt Damon. Drew Goddard adapted the screenplay from the 2011 novel The Martian by Andy Weir. The film depicts an astronaut's lone struggle to survive on Mars after being left behind and the efforts of NASA to rescue him and bring him home to Earth. It also stars Jessica Chastain, Jeff Daniels, Kristen Wiig, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Sean Bean, Michael Pea, Kate Mara, Sebastian Stan, Aksel Hennie, Mackenzie Davis, Donald Glover, and Benedict Wong.

Produced through 20th Century Fox, the film is a coproduction of the United Kingdom and the United States. Producer Simon Kinberg began developing the film after Fox optioned the novel in March 2013, which Drew Goddard adapted into a screenplay and was initially attached to direct, but the film did not move forward. Scott replaced Goddard as director, and with Damon in place as the main character, production was approved. Filming began in November 2014 and lasted approximately seventy days. Twenty sets were built on one of the largest sound stages in the world in Budapest, Hungary. Wadi Rum in Jordan was also used for exterior filming.

The film premiered at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 2015, while the London premiere was held on September 24, 2015. The film was released in the United Kingdom on September 30, 2015, and in the United States on October 2, 2015, in 2D, 3D, IMAX 3D and 4DX.[5] It received positive reviews and grossed over $630 million worldwide, becoming Scott's highest-grossing film to date, as well as the 10th-highest-grossing film of 2015. The Martian received praise for its direction, visual effects, musical score, screenplay, scientific accuracy, and likability, largely due to Damon's performance. It received several accolades, including the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, seven nominations at the 88th Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay for Goddard, and the 2016 long form Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation. Damon won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and was nominated for several awards including the Academy Award for Best Actor, the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, and the Critics' Choice Award for Best Actor.

In 2035, the crew of the Ares III mission to Mars is exploring Acidalia Planitia on Martian solar day (sol)18 of their 31-sol expedition. A severe dust storm threatens to topple their Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV). The mission is scrubbed, but as the crew evacuates, astronaut Mark Watney is struck by debris. The telemetry from his suit's bio-monitor is damaged and Watney is erroneously presumed dead. With the MAV (Mars Ascent Vehicle) on the verge of toppling, the remaining crew takes off for their orbiting vessel, the Hermes.

Watney awakens after the storm, injured and with a low-oxygen warning. He returns to the crew's surface habitat ("Hab") and treats his wound. As Watney recovers, he begins a video diary. Unable to communicate with Earth, his only chance of rescue is the next Mars mission. In four years, the Ares IV will land 3,200 kilometers (2,000mi) away at the Schiaparelli crater. Watney's immediate concern is food; being a botanist, he creates a garden inside the Hab using Martian soil fertilized with the crew's bio-waste and manufactures water from leftover rocket fuel. He then cultivates potatoes using whole potatoes reserved for a special Thanksgiving meal. He also begins modifying the rover for the journey to the Ares IV MAV site.

On Earth, NASA satellite planner Mindy Park, reviewing satellite images, notices moved equipment and realizes Watney must be alive. NASA director Teddy Sanders releases the news to the public, but decides not to tell the Ares III crew so that they will remain focused on their mission, over flight director Mitch Henderson's strong objection.

Watney takes the rover on a one-month journey to retrieve the Pathfinder probe, which fell silent in 1997. Using Pathfinder's camera and motor, he establishes visual contact with NASA. NASA transmits a software patch to link the rover with Pathfinder, enabling communication by text. Sanders finally allows Henderson to inform Watney's crewmates.

Mars missions director Vincent Kapoor and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) director Bruce Ng prepare a space probe to deliver enough food for Watney to survive until Ares IV's arrival. However, the Hab's airlock blows out, exposing the Hab to the harsh Martian environment; the potato plants all die. Now, to save time, Sanders orders the routine safety inspections be bypassed. His gamble fails, and the Atlas V rocket explodes soon after lift-off.

The China National Space Administration has developed a secret booster rocket, the Taiyang Shen (lit. the "Sun God"). The decision is made to use the rocket to resupply Watney. However, JPL astrodynamicist Rich Purnell devises an alternative plan: have the Taiyang Shen rendezvous with and resupply the Hermes, which will then use Earth's gravity to "slingshot" back to Mars two years earlier than Ares IV. Sanders rejects the idea, considering it too risky for the Hermes crew. Henderson surreptitiously sends Purnell's proposal to the crew; they unanimously vote to implement it without seeking NASA approval, disabling NASA's remote controls and making the course change. Sanders is forced to support them publicly, but demands Henderson resign after the Ares III mission is complete.

Watney begins the 90-sol journey to Schiaparelli, where the MAV for Ares IV has been pre-positioned. He must use it to rendezvous with the Hermes, but it needs to be lightened considerably. After takeoff, when the MAV runs out of fuel, its velocity relative to the Hermes is not fast enough for Watney to be picked up. Commander Lewis quickly improvises, using an explosive to breach a forward airlock, resulting in air escaping violently and slowing down the Hermes. It is still not enough; using a tethered Manned Maneuvering Unit, Lewis is unable to reach Watney. Watney pierces his pressure suit, using the escaping air to propel himself to Lewis, ending his 543 sols alone on Mars.

After returning to Earth, Watney becomes a survival instructor for astronaut candidates. Five years later, as the Ares V is about to launch, those involved in Watney's rescue are seen in their current lives.

Matt Damon and Jessica Chastain

Chastain prepared for her role by meeting with astronauts and scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center. She was inspired by astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson, saying "She's very matter of fact, very straightforward. My character is dealing with the guilt of leaving a crew member behind, but she's still responsible for the lives of five other crew mates. I tried to play her as Tracy would have been in those moments."[8] Damon prepared for the role by a different method than Chastain. He explained, "For me the rehearsal process was sitting with Ridley and going kind of line-by-line and moment-by-moment through the script and playing out a plan of attack for what we wanted each scene to accomplish."[9]

The Media Action Network for Asian-Americans (MANAA) criticized the casting of white actor Mackenzie Davis as Mindy Park who it said was described by author Andy Weir as Korean-American. The group also criticized the casting of Chiwetel Ejiofor as Vincent Kapoor, who the MANAA said Weir described as an Asian Indian character. In the novel, the character's name was Venkat Kapoor, and he identifies religiously as a Hindu (a Baptist and a Hindu in the film). The group called the casting whitewashing and said that Asian actors, being under-represented in Hollywood, were deprived of acting opportunities.[6] Weir said in October 2015 he perceived Mindy Park as Korean but said he did not explicitly write her as Korean. He also dismissed criticism of Ejiofor's casting as Kapoor, "[Kapoor]'s an American. Americans come from lots of different sources. You can be Venkat Kapoor and black."[7] In the original novel, Weir intentionally avoided including the physical descriptions of his characters.[7]

Naomi Scott was cast as Ryoko, a member of the JPL team. She filmed her scenes but they were removed from the final cut, resulting in her appearance becoming a silent role.[10]

The Martian was directed by Scott and based on a screenplay by Drew Goddard that was adapted from Weir's 2011 novel of the same name. 20th Century Fox optioned the novel in March 2013, and producer Simon Kinberg was attached to develop the novel into a film.[11] The following May, Goddard entered negotiations with the studio to write and direct The Martian.[12] Goddard wrote a screenplay for the film[13] and Matt Damon expressed interest in starring under Goddard's direction. Goddard then pursued an opportunity to direct Sinister Six, a comic book film about a team of supervillains.[14] Kinberg then brought the book to Scott's attention.[15] In May 2014, Scott entered negotiations with the studio to direct the film with Damon cast as the film's stranded astronaut.[16] Scott said he was attracted by the emphasis on science and thought a balance could be struck between entertainment and learning. Damon said he was attracted by the novel, the screenplay, and the opportunity to work with Scott.[17] Following Scott's commitment, the project picked up the pace and was quickly approved.[18] Goddard has since expressed that he felt Scott made a much better film than he could have directed, telling Creative Screenwriting, "When it's Scott, collaboration is easy because I just revere him. Every day I would just look around and think, 'Is that really Ridley Scott sitting there at the table? This is exciting!'"[19]

Korda Studios 26 kilometres (16mi) west of Budapest, Hungary, in the wine-making village of Etyek was chosen for filming interior scenes of The Martian. It was favored for having one of the largest sound stages in the world.[20][21] Filming began in Hungary on November 24, 2014.[22] Around 20 sets were constructed for the film, which was filmed with 3D cameras.[21] Actual potatoes were grown in a sound stage next to the one used for filming. They were planted at different times so that different stages of growth could be shown in film scenes.[23] A team of six people built 15 suits for the film. External scenes, some with Matt Damon, were filmed in Wadi Rum, a UNESCO world heritage site located in Jordan, over eight days in March 2015.[21][24][25] Wadi Rum had been used as a location for other films set on Mars, including Mission to Mars (2000), Red Planet (2000) and The Last Days on Mars (2013).[26] Total filming time for the film lasted approximately 70 days.[21]A special Mars rover model was built for the filming; the movie cast and team presented the rover model to Jordan in return for the hospitality they had received. The rover is now exhibited in Jordan's Royal Automobile Museum.[27][28]

Weir avoided writing Watney as lonely and depressed in his novel. While Watney's humor is preserved in the film, Scott also depicted the character's isolation in the vast, dusty Martian landscape. Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter wrote: "The scenes back on Earth provide a hectic, densely populated counterweight to the Martian aridity, which is magnificently represented by exteriors shot in the vicinity of Wadi Rum in Jordan."[29] Damon said he and Scott were inspired by the documentary film Touching the Void (2003), which featured trapped mountain climbers.[30] Scott also expected to film Watney as a Robinson Crusoe, a character in full isolation, but learned to film Watney differently since the character would be self-monitoring his behavior under the watch of various mission cameras.[23]

According to Scott, the first cut of the movie was 2 hours and 45 minutes long.[31] An extended cut of the movie was released on home video.[32][33]

When the novel was first published, NASA invited Weir to tour the Johnson Space Center and Jet Propulsion Laboratory. When Scott began preparing the film, Weir contacted NASA to collaborate on the film.[34] When Scott and producer Mark Huffam had their first production meeting, they called NASA and spoke with its film and television liaison Bert Ulrich.[35] NASA decided to assist the filmmakers with depicting the science and technology in The Martian since it saw potential in promoting space exploration.[34]

Key NASA staff members that joined the partnership were James L. Green, the Director of the Planetary Science Division, and Dave Lavery, the Program Executive for Solar System Exploration.[35] Scott conversed with Green twice before filming started. Over a period of a month, NASA answered hundreds of questionson a weekly basison everything from radioisotope systems to the look of potential "habs"the residences for future Mars astronauts. The questions were answered by Green or passed on to the right expert, and then came back to Scott's team to make their way into the production.[36][37] The space agency also sent hundreds of files of real images of Mars and images of control centers, down to what the computer screens look like, to the production team.[38] Green arranged a tour of the Johnson Space Center in Houston for production designer Arthur Max, who met with individual specialists, taking hundreds of photos as he went for eight hours.[36][38] The production designer created a futuristic, heavily modernized Mission Control as a studio set; Ars Technica described its depiction as "the space agency that we all dream of" and the opposite of the real Johnson Center's appearance as "a run down college campus".[39]

Newsweek said NASA collaborated more with The Martian than most other films: "Staff from many NASA departments consulted on the film, from script development through principal photography, and are now helping with marketing timed to the theatrical release."[35] As part of the collaboration, the production's NASA liaison included the front page of the script for the film in the payload of the spacecraft Orion during its Exploration Flight Test 1 on December 5, 2014.[40]

The Los Angeles Times said NASA and the wider scientific community anticipated the film as a way to publicize a human mission to Mars. The New York Times reports that the film "serves as a nice plug for NASA, which has returned the favor by pushing the movie on its website. (On Monday [September 28, 2015], scientists announced that signs of liquid water could be seen in photographs taken on Mars by a camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter,[41][42] timing that suggests NASA certainly has the whole cross-promotion thing down.)"[43] Jim Erickson, NASA project manager, said the film would show moviegoers "the risks and rewards" of humans traveling to Mars.[44]

In October 2015, NASA presented a new web tool to follow Watney's trek across Mars[45] and details of NASA's next steps, as well as a health hazards report[46][47] for a real-world human journey to Mars.[48][49][50]

In 2016, then sitting U.S. President Barack Obama who made the annual NASA budget requests to Congress, named The Martian as among the best science fiction films he had ever seen.[51]

Harry Gregson-Williams composed the score for The Martian. It is the fourth collaboration between Gregson-Williams and Scott. Gregson-Williams previously worked on music for Scott's films Kingdom of Heaven (2005), Prometheus (2012) and Exodus: Gods and Kings, composing the main film score for the first and last films, and doing additional music for the other two.[52]

A running gag in the film is commander Melissa Lewis's love for 1970s songs (especially of the disco genre, which apparently Watney hates), the only music available to Watney on Mars which often appears as diegetic music. The soundtrack includes:[53]

The exit music, which includes "Don't Leave Me This Way" and "I Will Survive," is a commentary on Watney's situation on Mars.[54]

20th Century Fox launched a viral marketing campaign for The Martian.[55] On June 7, 2015, NASA astronaut Michael J. Massimino shared an in-universe video diary depicting Damon's character and the other crew members.[56][57] Ars Technica compared the video diary to similar viral videos marketed for Scott's 2012 film Prometheus in having a similar "style of slickly produced fictional promotional material". The studio then released an official trailer on June 8.[58] Forbes said, "20th Century Fox has cut together a pretty perfect trailer in that it absolutely makes the sale. It establishes the stakes, offers a sympathetic lead character, shows off an all-star cast, tosses out a potential catchphrase, and ends on a grimly humorous tagline."[59] In response to the trailer, Jimmy Kimmel, host of the late-night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live!, released a spoof trailer, The Mastronaut: Emission to Mars, that edited the original to parody the film.[60]

At the start of August, Fox released another video, depicting interviews with each of the main crew members.[61] Mid-month, the studio released another film trailer, and NASA hosted a "Martian Day" at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to both promote The Martian and highlight the space program's ongoing efforts to carry out a human mission to Mars.[37] At the end of August, Fox released another video, presenting it as a special episode of the TV series StarTalk in which astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson discusses the hazards of traveling to Mars.[62] In September, Scott's RSA Films released a teaser for The Martian that depicted Damon wearing Under Armour sports clothing and being active in his off-world tasks.[63] The teaser originated from a collaboration between RSA Films and the marketing shop 3AM (under theatrical advertising agency Wild Card), initiated in 2014, to produce advertising content for The Martian. RSA contacted the advertising agency Droga5, under whom Under Armour is a client.[64] Droga5 ultimately collaborated with WME and 3AM to produce the teaser.[63]

Forbes's Peter Himler said American astronauts had traditionally been used by public relations to promote commercial products, starting with the drink Tang. Himler said it "came as no surprise" that NASA astronauts in the International Space Station were reported by The Guardian and CBS News as having read Weir's novel and hoping to see the film on board the ISS.[65] NASA participated in the marketing of the film despite its lack of involvement with previous films. Though it turned down a request for Interstellar to be screened on the ISS,[38] The Martian was screened on board[66] 402km (250 miles) above the Earth's surface on September 19, 2015, and also at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, and at the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral on October 1, 2015.[38]

In November 2015, 20th Century Fox announced The Martian VR Experience, a "virtual reality adventure" where viewers play as Mark Watney and reenact scenes from the film.[67] The project was executive produced by Scott alongside Joel Newton and directed by Robert Stromberg. It was released for HTC Vive and PlayStation VR on November 15, 2016, and is also available for the Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR.[68] The project won 2 major awards; a Silver Lion at the Cannes Film Festival and an AICP Award.

The Martian premiered at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 2015.[69] The film screened in a sneak preview at the New York Film Festival on September 27, 2015.[70] It also screened at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, on September 29, 2015.[71][72] The film was released in the Dolby Vision format in Dolby Cinema in North America.[73]

Two months before The Martian's release, BoxOffice forecast that the film would gross $46 million on its opening weekend in the United States and ultimately $172 million in its theatrical run. The magazine said positive factors for its performance included the continued sales of Weir's novel, Scott's success with past science fiction films, and the positive reception of prior space-based films Gravity (2013) and Interstellar (2014). The magazine said negative factors included Damon not being a consistent draw at the box office, Gravity and Interstellar setting high expectations, and Scott's "stumble" with his previous film Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014).[74] A week before the film's release, pre-release trackings in North America (United States and Canada) showed that the film was on pace to earn between $4050 million at its opening weekend from 3,826 theaters.[75]

In comparison to other contemporary space films, Gravity, facing far less competition, opened to a better-than-expected $55.8 million in 2013. In November 2014, Interstellar debuted to $47.5 million.[75] Unlike Gravity and Interstellar, which had the benefit of IMAX locations, boosting profits, The Martian was not initially playing in IMAX, since IMAX was committed to an exclusive run of Robert Zemeckis' The Walk. The Martian played in more than 350 premium large-format theaters including 2,550 3D locations.[75][76] Also, the film was released several days after the announcement of NASA's discovery of water on Mars' planetary surface,[41][42] which might have aided in boosting its opening.[77] Ticket selling website Fandango reported that the film was outselling Gravity.[77] Unlike Gravity, The Martian did not contain abundant 3D spectacle (even though it was filmed in 3D), and was longer than Gravity.[78]

The Martian was a financial success.[79] It grossed $228.4 million in the United States & Canada and $402.2 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $630.6 million against a budget of $108 million.[4] Worldwide, it was the highest-grossing Fox film of 2015 and the tenth-highest-grossing film of that year overall.[80] Deadline Hollywood calculated the net profit of the film to be $150.32 million, accounting for production budgets, P&A, talent participations, and other costs, with box office grosses, and ancillary revenues from home media, placing it tenth on their list of 2015's "Most Valuable Blockbusters";[81] and The Hollywood Reporter reported around $80100 million profits for the film.[82]

The film was released in theaters in 2D and 3D.[83] In the United Kingdom, it was released on September 30, 2015, a Wednesday,[84] and in the United States on the following Friday, October 2, 2015.[85] It was also released in 49 markets including Mexico, Hong Kong, India and Taiwan from the weekend October 24, 2015 and expanded to Germany, Russia, and South Korea the following weekend. It opened in Spain on October 16, then France on October 21. China opened on November 25 and Japan bowed in the first quarter of 2016 on February 5.[86][87] Various sites estimated the film to gross between $45 and $50 million over its opening weekend in the United States.[88]

In North America, it opened on Friday, October 2, 2015, and earned $18.06 million on its opening day of which $2 million came from premium large formats from 3,831 theaters.[89][90] The film's Friday gross included $2.5 million from late-night Thursday screenings that took place in 2,800 theaters.[91] During its opening weekend, it earned $54.3 million from 3,831 theaters ranking first at the box office which is the second biggest October opening, behind Gravity ($55.7 million) and the second biggest for Scott, behind Hannibal ($58 million) and Damon, behind The Bourne Ultimatum ($69.2 million).[4] The film made $6 million at 375 premium large format screens.[92] 3D accounted for 45% of the ticket sales while RealD 3D accounted for 42% or $23 million of that sales which is one of highest for the 3D company in 2015.[92] The film fell short of breaking Gravity's record which might have been hurt by Hurricane Joaquin, the NFL season and the last day of the Major League Baseball regular season.[92] In its second weekend of release, it dropped gradually by 31.9% and earned $37 million from 3,854 theaters (+23 theaters) maintaining the top position. The Martian's demographics in its sophomore weekend remained in sync with its opening frame drawing 52% males and 72% over 25.[93] It topped the box office for two consecutive weekends before being dethroned by Goosebumps in its third weekend after a close race between the two ($23.6 million for Goosebumps and $21.3 million for The Martian).[94][95] It returned to the top of the box office for the third time in its fourth weekend,[96] and went on the top the box office for four non-consecutive weekends[97] before being overtaken by Spectre in its fifth weekend.[98] On November 5, the film surpassed Gladiator ($187.7 million) to become Scott's highest-grossing film at the domestic box office.[99]

Internationally, The Martian was released in a total of 81 countries.[100] Outside North America, it opened on the same weekend in 54 markets and grossed $44.6 million from 9,299 screens topping the international box office as well as opening at No. 1 in over 15 markets.[86] The following weekend, it added 23 more markets and grossed an estimated $57.5 million from 77 markets from 12,859 screens.[100] Its opening weekends in South Korea ($12.5 million)[nb 1], the United Kingdom, Ireland and Malta ($10.2 million), Russia and the CIS ($7.4 million), France ($6.9 million), Australia ($4.5 million) and Germany ($4.3 million; behind Inside Out) represented its largest takings.[86][100][102] In terms of total earnings, the United Kingdom ($35.3 million), South Korea ($33.6 million), Australia ($16.57 million) and Germany ($16 million) are the top markets.[103][104] In South Korea, it became Fox's third-highest-grossing film ever behind Avatar (2009) and Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015).[103] It topped the box office outside of North America for two consecutive weekends before being overtaken by Ant-Man in its third weekend[105] but returned to the top in its fourth weekend.[102] In its fifth weekend, it was surpassed by Spectre thereby topping the international box office for three weekends in total.[103] The Martian opened in China on Wednesday, November 25 and earned $50 million in its five-day opening weekend from 4,848 screens of which $6.6 million came from 249 IMAX theaters.[106] In its second weekend, it fell by 60% to $13.7 million,[107] while in total, it grossed $95 million there.[108] It opened in Japan on February 5, 2016 under the name Odyssey,[100][109] where it earned $5.2 million from 8,333 screens in its three-day opening weekend, debuting at No. 1 at the box office and helped the film push past the $600 million mark. Its Saturday and Sunday take was $4.25 million.[109][110] It dropped just 19% in its second after adding $3.4 million.[111] It has topped the box office there for four consecutive weekends and as of February 28 has grossed a total of $23.2 million.[112][113]

For its United States release, the film was originally scheduled to be released on November 25, 2015, but 20th Century Fox switched The Martian with Victor Frankenstein so that the former would be its first film for all audiences in the country's fall season (SeptemberNovember).[114] On the film's 3D screenings, RealD's chief Anthony Marcoly said 3D technology was proliferating from action-packed blockbuster films commonly released in the United States' summer season. Marcoly said the technology was being used in more immersive storytelling, citing The Martian and The Walk (released the same year) as two examples.[83]

The Martian was released on Blu-ray and DVD on January 12, 2016. It was released on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray on February 14, 2016. An extended cut of the film adding an additional ten minutes was released on June 7, 2016.[33]

On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 91%, with an average rating of 7.9/10, based on 383 reviews. The website's critics consensus read, "Smart, thrilling, and surprisingly funny, The Martian offers a faithful adaptation of the bestselling book that brings out the best in leading man Matt Damon and director Ridley Scott."[115] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 80 out of 100 based on 46 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[116] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported filmgoers gave it an average 4.5 out of 5 stars and a 66% "definite recommend". Audience demographics were 54% men and a total 59% over 35.[117]

The Martian received praise for its direction, visual effects, musical score, screenplay, scientific accuracy, and likability, largely due to Damon's performance.[118] Variety reported, "Critics are calling the film a funny, thrilling ride, and a return to form for [Ridley] Scott after The Counselor and Exodus: Gods and Kings fell flat."[119] According to aerospace engineer Dr. Robert Zubrin, commenting in The Guardian:

[The film] is the first genuine Mars movie. It is the first movie that attempts to be realistic and that is actually about human beings grappling with the problems of exploring Mars, as opposed to various movies set on Mars that are essentially either shoot 'em ups or horror films. It does not engage in fantasy: no monsters, no magic, no Nazis. However, there are a number of technical mistakes.[120]

Writing for the New York Post, Lou Lumenick considered the film to be Scott's and Damon's best and thought that it is a "straightforward and thrilling survival-and-rescue adventure, without the metaphysical and emotional trappings of Interstellar".[121] Manohla Dargis, of The New York Times, stated that the film "involves a dual journey into outer and inner space, a trip that takes you into that immensity called the universe and deep into the equally vast landscape of a single consciousness. For this accidental castaway, space is the place where he's physically marooned, but also where his mind is set free", from a film director, whose "great, persistent theme is what it means to be human".[43]

Negative reviews focused on the lack of character depth or atmosphere. Jaime N. Christley, writing in Slant Magazine, commented, "It goes in for the idea of texture, tics, and human behavior, but there's no conviction, and no real push for eccentricity. ... It hardly seems interested in its characters or in any depiction of their work, settling instead for types of characters and kinds of scenes, correctly placed among the pendulum swings of Watney's dramatic journey."[122] In The Village Voice, Stephanie Zacharek stated that the actors "are treated as accessories", and that the director is "workmanlike in his approach to science, which always trumps magic in The Martianthat's the point. But if we can't feel a sense of wonder at the magnitude and mystery of space, why even bother?"[123] In Cinemixtape, J. Olson commented: "Ridley Scott and company have concocted the most colossally mediocre sci-fi movie of the decade, all in pursuit of empty backslapping and a grade school level celebration of science. Not only is The Martian not in the same class as Scott's two masterpieces Alien and Blade Runner it's not even on the same continent."[124]

The Martian was listed on nearly two dozen critics' top ten lists for 2015.[125]

The film was included in many critics' Top Ten Films of 2015 lists.[125] The film received various industry awards and nominations including 26 Best Picture, 20 Best Director (for Scott), and 19 Best Actor (for Damon) nominations at different organizations and associations.[126] The American Film Institute selected The Martian as one of the Top Ten Films of the year.[127] The film garnered two Golden Globe Awards for Best Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and Best Actor Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for Damon. Scott was also nominated for Best Director. It received nine nominations from the Broadcast Film Critics Association, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Visual Effects. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Adapted Screenplay.[128]

The Martian was named Film of the Year by National Board of Review also winning Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Adapted Screenplay. Ranked at position eight, it won the Top Ten Films of the year award at African-American Film Critics Association. It received eight nominations from Satellite Awards including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor Motion Picture, Best Screenplay Adapted, and Best Visual Effects.[129]

The Martian was named one of the best films of 2015 by over 50 critics and publications and was ranked seventh on Rotten Tomatoes and thirteenth on Metacritic's best scored film of 2015.[125][130] David Hynes of WhatCulture ranked the script seventh in his[131] list of the "10 Best Movie Screenplays Since 2010", writing, "Goddard injects some much-needed humour into the story, asking not so much how would somebody survive on Mars but how would somebody live?"[132]

Solanum watneyi, a species of bush tomato from Australia, has been named after the character of Mark Watney, to honor the fictional heroic botanist portrayal. It is a member of the same genus as the potato, Solanum.[133][134][135]

When Weir wrote the novel The Martian, he strove to present the science correctly and used reader feedback to get it right.[137] When Scott began directing the film, he also sought to make it realistic and received help from James L. Green, the Director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA's Science Mission Directorate. Green put together teams to answer scientific questions that Scott asked.[138] Green said, "The Martian is reasonably realistic," though he said the film's hazardous dust storm, despite reaching speeds of 120 miles per hour (190km/h) would in reality have weak force.[139] Green also found the NASA buildings in the film to be more stylish than the functional ones NASA actually uses.[140] Film critics picked up the point that the Martian winds could amount to "barely a light breeze" in their reviews,[141][142] and screenwriter Goddard agreed the winds had to be considerably exaggerated in order to set up the situation that sets the story in motion.[143][144][145]

The process used by the character Watney to produce water was accurate and is being used by NASA for a planned Martian rover. The radioisotope thermoelectric generator was also appropriately used for heat.[137] When his rations begin to run low, Watney builds an improvised garden using Martian soil and the crew's feces as a fertilizer. "We could probably grow something on Mars", said Michael Shara, curator, Department of Astrophysics, Division of Physical Sciences at the American Museum of Natural History.[citation needed] However Martian soil has since been found to be toxic to both plant and animal life, although it is believed that microbial organisms have the potential to live on Mars.[146][147][148] In one scene, the glass face shield on Watney's helmet cracks; as oxygen momentarily drops below the critical level, he quickly patches the helmet with duct tape and avoids suffocation. According to Shara, "As long as the pressure on the inside is around 30%, you could hold it together before your eyes blow out or you had an embolism."[citation needed]

Time magazine criticized another duct tape based repair: "When a pressure leak causes an entire pod on Watneys habitat to blow up, he patches a yawning opening in what's left of the dwelling with plastic tarp and duct tape." Such a repair might work in the reality of the actual Mars atmosphere, but is inconsistent with the reality the film has established.[149]

While Martian gravity is less than 40% of Earth's, director Scott chose not to depict the gravitational difference, finding the effort less worthwhile to put on screen than zero gravity.[34] Scott said the heavy spacesuits would weigh the main character enough to make up for not showing the partial gravity.[44] The climate of Mars is also cold enough that it would make Watney's initial plan to disable the rover's heater immediately impractical. The average temperature is 80F (62C); it is cold enough on Mars for carbon dioxide snow to fall at the poles in winter.[citation needed]

The plot key to the eventual rescue plan is gravity assist, a well-known practice that has been used on a number of robotic planetary exploration missions and served as a backup strategy on manned Apollo missions. It would have been one of the first approaches that everyone within NASA would have considered,[149] but in the movie, only one JPL astrodynamicist argues for sending the Ares mission back to Mars using gravity assist rather than having a separate mission to rescue Watney.

Ed Finn, director of the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University, said, "What this story does really well is imagine a near-future scenario that doesn't push too far of where we are today technically."[44] British physicist Brian Cox said, "The Martian is the best advert for a career in engineering I've ever seen."[150]

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The Martian (film) - Wikipedia

Elon Musk is the CEO of Tesla Inc TSLA and SpaceX, two companies attempting to solve world problems. Heres the latest on Musks grand ambitions to colonize Mars.

What Happened: Founded in 2002, SpaceX is now a $127 billion company that has transformed the space industry. While the company has already accomplished a lot for the space sector, Musk has grand ambitions to use SpaceX for the next evolution of space travel.

Something will happen to Earth eventually, its just a question of time, Musk told Financial Times editor Roula Khalaf. Eventually the sun will expand and destroy all life on Earth, so we do need to move at some point, or at least be a multi-planet species.

Talks of colonizing Mars arent new for Musk, but the latest comments call into the timeliness and speed that could be needed.

Its a question of what percentage of resources should we devote to such an endeavor? I think if you say 1 percent of resources, thats probably a reasonable amount.

Musk told Khalaf that he would consider going to Mars in the future if hes older.

If Im getting old, Ill do it. Why not?

Musk said there is a non-trivial chance of dying, which leads him to prefer to go when hes older so he can see his kids grow up.

Rather than right now, where little X is only two-and-a-half. I think hed miss me.

Maybe someday Musk could go to Mars or space with X, his son, who is currently obsessed with toy rockets.

Related Link:Elon Musk Says 'It's A Fixer Upper Of A Planet': Can We Live On Mars?

Why Its Important: Over the years, Musk has sought to help provide solutions to problems he recognized. This includes co-founding what would become PayPal Holdings PYPL to change banking, leading Tesla to change the electric vehicle and clean energy sector and creating SpaceX to change space travel.

SpaceX has landed deals with NASA and is helping make transportation of satellites and other items to space cheaper for companies.

The reusable rockets that are a staple to SpaceX have transformed the space industry forever and could be the precursor to increased space travel and eventually colonizing Mars.

Photo courtesy Steve Jurvetson on Flickr

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Elon Musk Racing To Colonize Mars, He Says This Will 'Destroy All Life On Earth' - PayPal Holdings (NASDA - Benzinga

Before reading this article, I would like to state that I am only presenting this theory, this isnt an argument for or against its veracity.

sometimes see our world with different eyes based on the knowledge that we have. If a child is born with no knowledge of Earth and indoctrinated that our planet is flat they have no reason to doubt their parent or mentor. Our curiosity is what drives us towards education from a very young age, not only to our origins but also to this rock that we have been given life on.

Based on the historical notes from early researchers and explorers of this Earth, we have accumulated knowledge that allows us to acknowledge the size, shape, and resources available on our home rock, but when it comes to the core of the Earth, we dont have any questions as we think that besides thousands of kilometers of bedrock and some very hot magma, there is nothing of interest. So, why wonder right?

Well, this is because, over the last two centuries, the modern era of exploration, not that many people ventured towards exploring the corners of the world that are still left in the shade and which may be drawn on the map just to fill the empty space, but truly there may be nothing there or something we are not yet aware of.

This is because exploring takes not only a lot of time and resources, but its quite a risky business, hence why only a few come back.

We are already proceeding to colonize Mars whilst there are many undiscovered places on Earth or places that have been lost in time. We dont know what lies at the bottom of oceans and the deepest hole we dug in the crust of our earth is only 12.2 kilometers deep. Therefore there are still a lot of unknowns.

For many years, people didnt really wonder that much about what is within Earth and this is because they always had bigger problems on their hands such as wars, famine, or pandemics. The wonder was brought by early geologists but it never reached public attention.

It was not until the late 19th century that this wonder reached public attention and it did not only reach the support of the public but even the support of scientists, politicians, and world leaders.A map from the early 19th century representing Atvatabar, the world within the crust of our Earth (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

The idea behind the theory is that the Earth is actually hollow inside and that it encapsulates more land and water with a separate ecosystem sustained by the Sun represented as the core of the Earth. The Earths crust or bedrock of 2,400 kilometers (1,500 miles) is what separates what has been described as a separate civilization from us which lives outside the crust.Julse Verne (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

The origin of the theory was fueled by the famous novelJourney to the Centre of the Earthby Jules Verne, published in 1864. The novel was originally published in French, but it quickly got translated into different languages and distributed all over the world. The book got so much attention that in 1867 Jules Verne published another version that expanded on the detail of the center of the Earth.

The novels story represents a team of explorers who go down into a volcanic creature towards the center of the Earth through the South Pole. After 2 months the exploration team finally reaches the core of the Earth where they discover a whole new civilization powered by their own Sun.This civilization was as advanced as our own world in the 19th century, with a great emphasis on infrastructure.

This is where the problems started, as the book got more and more popular some people actually took this book not as a novel, but as if it was actually stating the findings of new discovery (remember this was back in the 1870s). This also attracted the attention of different scientists that were inspired by the novel to actually believe that this theory could be true.

Many writers have started a mediatization campaign of this new discovery to the rest of the world, just like how social media today misinforms the masses, but a lot slower.

The first evidence of this was seen published in the late 19th century by a researcher within the field of Geography. The book is entitledPhysical Geographywritten by Arnoldo de Azevedo who writes about a mysterious world beneath our own feet with the argument that scientists at the time knew nothing about what is five miles beneath their feet.

The author goes over saying that scientists only come up with theories and hypotheses to entertain the world without having any hard evidence and allowing the reputation of scientists to define the reliability of any theory. Based on 19th-century scientific standards it is pretty true.

We have below our feet an immense region whose radius is 6,290 kilometers, which is completely unknown, challenging the conceit and competence of scientists. (Quote taken from Physical Geography by Arnoldo de Azevedo)

Azevedo also came up with his own scientific hypothesis behind the theory. When the Earth was still forming as a planet, most of the Earth was just soft lava and due to this the centrifugal speed at which the planet was spinning forced the lava from the center or core of the Earth to settle on the side, therefore making the Earth hollow. Due to lower centrifugal force at the two poles of the Earth, holes to the hollow center have also formed.

Believe it or not, there is actually a calculation that supports this theory. The total size of our planets surface is 431.5 million kilometers squared which should give a weight six times bigger than the actual weight of the Earth which is 5.972 10 kg. This means that the Earth is not necessarily hollow (although it can be a logical explanation), but for some reason, our planet is a lot lighter.

What is even more interesting is that the 19th century isnt actually the first time this theory was mentioned as a possible scientific theory. The first mention of this theory was done in 1692 by Edmond Halley, a researcher in astrology and mathematics from the University of Oxford who put forward the idea that Earth has different size hollow shells inside, just as presented in this image.

If we were to go even further in history we would see mentions of similar theories of the Earth being Hollow, although the reference and ideologies are very vague, with, of course, Greek scholars being the first to think of it.

Going back to the 19th century, after the publication of Azevedos work there have been a large number of scholars who came up with support for this theory, or very similar variants to the theory itself.

Where it gets really interesting is in the 20th century with the bookThe Hollow Earthby Doctor Raymond Bernard (also known as Walter Siegmeister) who was a very popular writer, but also very controversial and this book is one of the main reasons. In the book, Bernard talks about the expeditions held by Richard Evelyn Byrd From the Artic in 1947 and Antarctica in 1956.Richard Evelyn Byrd in the Artic 1947 (Source: Virginmuseum of History & Culture)

Byrd and the rest of his team found the interior concavity that leads to the hollow center of the Earth. The North Pole with a distance of 2,700 kilometers until the scope of the inner land and the South Pole with a distance of 3,700 kilometers. The land inside hollow Earth is quite tropical and filled with a civilization that is 10 times more advanced than ours.

In the book, there is also a reference to all this in another book that debates these two holes from each of the poles towards the center of the Earth. The book is entitledWorlds Beyond the Polesby Amadeo Giannini, published in 1959. It is amazing how many books have been published on this matter, and these are the most popular ones, not taking into consideration the thousands of others lost in time.

During the early 20th century the theory really got the attention of scholars from various fields. A group of Russian scientists discovered that the magnetic North Pole isnt represented by a single spot, but by a line that is almost 1,500 kilometers long which goes over the polar river up until the Taimir Peninsula from Siberia.

Based on this hypothesis, this represents the edge of the polar concavity and any on the edge of the magnetic pole can be called the Magnetic North Pole because on this edge any compass would point to the North, no matter the position of the compass. Science isnt able to explain this phenomenon and blames it on the particles that are electrically charged by the Sun.

Even German Scientists before the Second World War had researched this theory but sadly all the research papers have been lost or destroyed during the war.

Since the middle of the 20th century, there have been smaller writers publishing about this theory, but around the 1970s when the scientific revolution took place, the interest in this theory was lost. It is interesting to see how many papers have been published disregarding the theory, yet we still only base our belief that the world is not hollow on calculations that for some reason dont add up.

Is it all a big lie supported by scientists and writers seeking attention? I will let you be the judge of that.

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The Origin of the Hollow Earth Theory - History of Yesterday

Outer space has been grabbing headlines over the past few months. The James Webb Space Telescope continues to wow astronomers and the masses alike withunparalleled images ofdistant galaxies, stellar nurseries,Neptunes ringsand more.

A couple of weeks ago, NASAs Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) altered an asteroids trajectory byslamming a spacecraft into it,a feat that,in theory, could help humanity avoid the fate of the dinosaurs. Even the thrice-delayedlaunch of NASAs Artemis I, which will eventually take a crew to the moon, continues tomakefront-page news.

However, another cosmic achievement has been eclipsed by these flashier feats: On Oct. 5,Nicole Mann, a registered member of theWailaki tribe, became the first Indigenous woman to go to space.

Spaceexplorationhasalwaysbeen marked by firsts: the first person or country in space, on the moon, and someday, on Mars. There are countless practical and symbolic reasons representation matters in space, just as it doeseverywhere else, particularly for Indigenous people.

Agencies, organizations and companies that spearhead space programs and interests have always been dominated by wealthy white men. John Glenntestified in front of a Congressional subcommitteethatwomen shouldnt participate in NASAs astronaut program. The naming of the James Webb Space Telescope hasgenerated much controversybecause ofWebbs participationin theLavender Scare, when the U.S. government tried to identify and jettison any employees who werent demonstrably heterosexual. The first all-female spacewalk happened just three years ago, andonly after a debacle involving a lack of spacesuitssized for non-male crew members.

Diversity and representation in NASAs astronaut classes, as well as in other astronaut programs around the world,are slowly improving. But not quickly enough.

The existence of overwhelmingly white, male crews and space tourists suggests false homogeneity on Earth and perpetuates destructive power dynamics. Private space companies run by rich, white men imply that space is accessible only to certain people if they just work and save up.

The dominance of space ventures by the white and wealthy also paves the way forcosmic capitalism. The finders-keepers and frontier mentality prioritizes exploration, not for the sake of knowledge or even of species survival, but rather, for power. But space,like Earth,is not a commodity and shouldnt be treated as such.

Indigenous people have lost far too much on Earth already, and we need to prevent that from happening in space, too. Problematic rhetoric around manifest destiny, pushing the space frontier or colonizing celestial bodiesperpetuates those ideologies and behaviors. Quantifying how muchNative Americanshavelost is impossible; what is entirely possible, however, is disrupting these patterns before they reach the stars.

Most of us don't think much about the cosmos except when we glimpse the occasional eclipse or shooting star.However, thats not the case for Indigenous communities, whose connection to the cosmos is spiritual, cultural and practical. These communities use the stars to navigate,celebrate holidays dictated by the position of the planets, and incorporate constellations intoreligious and spiritual practices. Space X currently has over2,300 Starlink satellites orbiting Earth(with some 30,000 more on deck), whichdisrupt ground-based astronomyand create a gap between Indigenous communities and the natural elements that have guided their customs for centuries.

Indigenous communities have also had to fight to retain land that offers superlative access to the sky. The controversy about the plannedThirty Meter Telescopeon Hawaiis Maunakea mountain is one recent example. Maunakea, an inactive volcano with a sacred summit used for prayer, already accommodates13independent observatories, each of which is committed to sustainability andstewardship. The Thirty Meter Telescope would be far larger than the existing observatories, and most problematically, its plans didnt involve local Indigenous communities or consider the impact its construction would have on them.

Fortunately, the National Science Foundation isassessing the environmental impactsof the telescopes construction, and the Environmental Protection Agencyrecommended that the Foundation find an alternative sitethat wouldnt have such negative impacts on the lives of native people.

Still, the clear implication is that Native American land is ripe for theft, especially in the name of "progress." Powerful white people still get to decide which Indigenous beliefs, values, practices and property to respect and which tobulldozefor their own use.

A team of astronomers concernedabout the impacts of such developments suggests treating space asanancestral global commonsthat contains the heritage and future of humanitys scientific and cultural practices.That legacy, as well as the present and future, should be accessible toall people. In corporate terms, all of us are shareholders and stakeholders in the sky and in space, and that paradigm should guide decisions about who does what in space, why and at what cost to whom.

In this context, its hard to overstate the significance of the first Native American woman in space. Mann, commander of theCREW-5 mission, is the second Native American in space (20 years ago,John Harrington, of theChickasaw Nationbecame the first). She will live on theInternational Space Stationfor up to six months, where she and the other astronauts will conduct research on the effects of microgravity on the human body and other processes essential to life off-Earth.

This missionpavesthe way forArtemis, which aims to send astronauts back to the moon and eventually to Mars. One of thegoals of the Artemis mission is to put thefirst female and the first person of color on the moon some 50 years after Neil Armstrong set foot there. Whoever NASA selects will, like Mann, serve as inspiration for generations,and as a reminder that cycles can be broken. As we think about the future, we can choose not to repeat the mistakes of the past.

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Why sending a Native American into space is a big deal - WBUR News